Bulgaria national rugby union team

Bulgaria
Union	Bulgarian Rugby Federation
Head coach	Romain Balmisse (FRA)
Captain	Petar Nikolov
	First colours
	First colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	59 (as of 16 January 2023)
Lowest	66 (4 April 2022)
First international
	Bulgaria 3 - 70 Romania ; (1963-5-20)
Biggest win
	Bulgaria 71 - 7 Serbia ; (2019-10-12)
Biggest defeat
	Bulgaria 0 - 100 Romania ; (1976-9-21)

The Bulgaria national rugby union team is governed by the Bulgarian Rugby Federation, and has yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

The national side is ranked 66th in the world (as of 4 April 2022).[1]

History

Bulgaria played their first rugby international in 1963, where they met Romania. They were defeated by the Romanians, 70-3. There was no qualifying tournament held for the first Rugby World Cup, and Bulgaria did not attempt to qualify for the tournament until the Welsh hosted the 1999 Rugby World Cup. They competed in Pool 2 of Round A, but did not advance to the next stage.

Bulgaria again tried to qualify for the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, and competed in Pool B of Round 1. Although Bulgaria won one pool match, they did not advance to Round 2. For the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Bulgaria were able to advance past Round 1, and entered Pool D of Round 2. However, they were then knocked out of the qualifying tournament.

World Cup record

World Cup record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Not invited
1991	Did not enter
1995	Did not enter
1999	Did not qualify
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
Total	0/9	-	-	-	-	-	-

Recent Squad

Previous squad

Squad to 2019 European Nations Cup - Division 2D.[2]

Georgi Gidionov
Dimo Dimov
Dimitar Georgiev
Vladi Mihov
Alex Tenev
Tsvetomir Stoyanov
Iliya Krastev
Nikolay Hinov
Denis Ivanov
Borislav Borisov
Kostadin Petkov
Vasil Borisov
Petar Nikolov (c)
Tsvetostin Tsvetkov
Ivailo Petrov
Ivailo Ivanov
Kristian Kotsev
Kristian Pavlov
Ricardo Attye
Tsvetan Rashev
Hristo Georgiev
Smilko Debrenliev
Deyan Parvanov
Dimitar Kotsev
Victor Iliev

External links

RugbyBulgaria.com Сайтът за Ръгби в България
Bulgaria national rugby union team Fixtures and Results
Bulgaria on "World Rugby"
Bulgaria Archived 2016-08-17 at the Wayback Machine on RugbyData.com
Murphy's Misfits Social Rugby in Bulgaria
Barbarians Sofia Barbarians Sofia Rugby Club

References

"Men's Rankings | World Rugby".
"Official RWC 2015 Site". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-04-15.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Men's Rankings | World Rugby".

[2] "Official RWC 2015 Site". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-04-15.