Rugby union in Chile
| Rugby union in Chile | |
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An English rugby union team in Valparaiso 1925.
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| Country | Chile |
| Governing body | Chilean Rugby Federation |
| National team | Chile |
| First played | Late 19th century |
| Registered players | 18,755 |
| Clubs | 23 |
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National competitions
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Rugby union in Chile is a fairly popular sport.
The Chilean Rugby Federation was founded on 4 May 1953. Their statutes and regulations were officialized at 16 December 1963. It is affiliated to the Olympic Committee of Chile, the Confederación Sudamericana de Rugby, FIRA and the IRB.
Rugby was first introduced into South America in the late 19th century by British immigrants, but this was mainly in Brazil and neighbouring Argentina.
It was introduced by the British in the 19th century. It is believed that the first people who played it in Chile were the English who worked at the saltmines in Iquique. Rugby was also developed by the English private colleges. For many years it was a sport mostly played by the upper classes in Chile. The first teams appeared in Valparaíso and Santiago de Chile, who later formed the Unión de Rugby de Chile. The British influence can be noticed by the fact that several of the main Chilean teams have English names.
Some rugby did trickle across the border from Argentina, but it was not until the 1920s that the game really became established, around Santiago and Valparaíso.
During the 1950s, Chile was visited by the Irish tour of 1952 and a 1954 French tour.
Chilean delegates were amongst those who went to the centenary congress of the International Rugby Football Board in 1986.
In South America, with the dominance of Argentina, Chile used to consider itself the best of the rest. This was confirmed in many people's minds when Chile won the second place in the 1981 South American Championship in the absence of Argentina. However, of the other South American nations only Uruguay has qualified for the Rugby World Cup.
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Wikipedia