Irish Rugby Football Union

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is the federation charged with the Rugby to XV in Ireland. The IRFU has its seat with Lansdowne Road with Dublin, where are also disputed the international matches of the team of Ireland of Rugby to XV. It is also owner of the stages of Ravenhill to Belfast and of Thomond Park with Limerick, as well as many other stages in the various provinces which are rented with the clubs. During work of Lansdowne Road, the matches of the team of Ireland proceed with Croke Park, always in Dublin.

The IRFU is resulting from two federations create in 1874: the Irish Football Union which had authority on the clubs of the Leinster, of the Munster and part of the Ulster, and the Northern Football Union off Ireland which controlled the area of Belfast. They amalgamated in 1879 to become the IRFU, and of the branches were created in Ulster, Leinster and Munster. The branch of the Connacht was created in 1886.

Following political separation between the Irish Republic and the Northern Ireland, the directory of the IRFU decided to continue to manage its business on the basis of of the 32 Irish counties and 4 traditional provinces: Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht. This led to a single situation within the national teams of Rugby: the teams representing Ireland on the various levels comprise players belonging to two different political entities: the Irish Republic and the Northern Ireland (which belongs to the the United Kingdom). To maintain the unit of Irish Rugby, the IRFU acquired in 1923 of a new stage in the district of Ravenhill with Belfast. The last disputed international match with Ravenhill was a meeting in 1954 against Scotland which was essential 6 points (two tests) on 0.

From the years 1880, the four provincial branches organized various competitions in the form of cuts, which although existing always today, saw their importance decreasing with the advent of the All Ireland League gathering 50 senior teams in 1990.

The four provinces disputed a championship inter-provinces as from the years 1920 and they are always the point of test card of the players hoping to reach the international level. Munster, Leinster and Ulster are traditionally the best provinces while Connacht is traditionally the weakest team.

For more detail, to see the Organization of Irish Rugby .

There are currently approximately 86500 players of Rugby to XV in Ireland. 56 clubs are affiliated with the branch from Ulster, 71 with that of Leinster, 59 with that of Munster and 19 to that of Connacht. There are also 246 schools which lay out teams of Rugby: 107 in Ulster, 75 in Leinster, 41 in Munster and 23 in Connacht.

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