Wales national rugby league team
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| Nickname | The Dragons | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governing body | Wales Rugby League | ||||||
| Region | Europe | ||||||
| Head coach | John Kear | ||||||
| Captain | Craig Kopczak | ||||||
| Most caps | Ian Watson (30) | ||||||
| Top try-scorer | Rhys Williams (18) | ||||||
| Top point-scorer | Iestyn Harris (165) | ||||||
| RLIF ranking | 8th | ||||||
| First international | |||||||
 New Zealand 8–9 Wales  (Aberdare, Wales; 1 January 1908) |
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| Biggest win | |||||||
 United States 4–92 Wales (Philadelphia, United States; 11 June 1995) |
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| Biggest defeat | |||||||
 England 74–0 Wales (Doncaster, England; 10 October 2008) |
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| World Cup | |||||||
| Appearances | 4 (first time in 1975) | ||||||
| Best result | Semi-finals, 1995; 2000 | ||||||
The Wales national rugby league team represents Wales in international rugby league football matches. Currently the team is eighth in the RLIF World Rankings. The team was run under the auspices of the Rugby Football League, but an independent body, Wales Rugby League, now runs the team from Cardiff. A total of three Welsh players have been entered into the Rugby League Hall Of Fame.
Similar to many other Welsh national sporting teams, Wales strip has been primarily red for many years, including now. However, in their last World Cup campaign in 2000 they did wear a shirt featuring the Welsh flag, adding a touch of green and white. The team is known as "The Dragons" and so the teams logo on the shirt is a red dragon.
The team date back to 1907, making them the third oldest national side after England and New Zealand. And it was a touring New Zealand side that Wales first played against in 1908, winning 9–8 at Aberdare. Since then Wales have regularly played England, since 1935 France, as well as welcomed the touring Australia and New Zealand teams, although they rarely toured themselves, not playing a match in the Southern Hemisphere until 1975. For 26 years Wales competed against their two biggest rivals, England and France, in the European Nations Cup, winning the trophy four times.
Wales have also competed in the World Cup on four occasions, the first time being in 1975. In 1995 and 2000 they had their most successful tournaments to date, surprisingly making the Semi-Finals on both occasions before being beaten by England and Australia respectively. Wales failed to qualify for the 2008 World Cup, being the second highest ranked side not to do so, having lost to Scotland on points difference over two matches. They then qualified for the 2013 World Cup but had a miserable tournament where they failed to win a game, including losing 32–16 to low ranked Italy in their opening game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
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