Ireland Rugby

The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) in rugby union. They are ranked third in the world by World Rugby as of 18 March 2019. The team competes annually in the current Six Nations Championship, which they have won fourteen times outright and shared nine times in its various formats. The team also competes every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions (1999 and 2007). Ireland is also one of the four unions that make up the British and Irish Lions – players eligible to play for Ireland are also eligible for the Lions. The Ireland national team dates to 1875, when it played its first international match against England. Ireland's highest ever position in the World Rugby Rankings is second, which they reached for the first time in 2015. Eleven former Ireland players have earned induction into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.