Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won once. Ulster were the first Irish team and the first team outside England and France to win the European Cup in 1999.
Andrew Trimble is a former Irish rugby union player who played for Ulster and represented Ireland at international level.
Rugby union is a popular team sport on the island of Ireland, organised on an all-Ireland basis, including players and teams from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Its governing body, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), was founded in 1875, making it the third oldest rugby union in the world after the RFU (England) and the SRU (Scotland), which were both founded in 1871.
David Humphreys MBE is a former Irish rugby union player. He played 72 times for Ireland, scoring 560 points, including 6 tries, and at the time of his international retirement was Ireland's most capped out-half. He played his club rugby for London Irish and Ulster, winning the 1998-99 Heineken Cup, the 2004 Celtic Cup and the 2005–06 Celtic League with the latter. Since retiring as a player he has served as director of rugby for Ulster and Gloucester, as a performance consultant with the Georgian Rugby Union, and is currently Director of Performance Operations with the England and Wales Cricket Board. He will succeed David Nucifora as the IRFU Performance Director in 2024.
The Ireland women's national rugby sevens team participates in international competitions such as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens and Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics. Unlike the Ireland women's national rugby union team, the sevens team is a professional team with players contracted to the Irish Rugby Football Union.
Lynne Cantwell is an Irish rugby union player. 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup. She is Ireland's most capped female player. She played at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Grace Davitt is an Irish female rugby union player and coach. She was in Ireland's 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup squad in France. She also played in two previous World Cup's in 2006 and 2010. Davitt was a member of the 2013 Women's Six Nations Championship team. She played for Ulster and Leinster, and has coached at Cooke RFC, Malone RFC and Queen's University RFC in the women's All-Ireland League. She was appointed backs coach of Ulster Women in July 2023.
Nick Timoney is an Irish rugby union player, who plays in the back row for Ulster and Ireland. He is regarded as a "hybrid" player, an athletic forward with the pace of a back. He was named in the 2021–22 United Rugby Championship Dream Team.
Sene Naoupu is an Ireland women's rugby union international. Naoupu was a member of the Ireland team that won the 2015 Women's Six Nations Championship. She also represented Ireland at the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. She is also an Ireland women's rugby sevens international. Naoupu is a Samoan New Zealander who originally emigrated to Ireland in 2009 with her former husband, George Naoupu, the former Highlanders, Harlequins and Connacht rugby union player. Naoupu is also a lifestyle coach and fitness trainer and operates her own business, Senshaper. In 2016, Naoupu was listed by The Irish Times as one of the thirty most influential women in Ireland.
Cormac Izuchukwu is an Irish rugby union player who plays lock for Ulster in the United Rugby Championship.
Aaron Sexton is an Irish rugby union player who plays wing or fullback for Ulster in the United Rugby Championship
Beibhinn Parsons is an Ireland women's rugby union international. She plays wing for Blackrock College RFC, Connacht and the Ireland women's national rugby union team. She made her senior international debut in 2018 aged 16, making her the youngest player, male or female, to play senior rugby for the Irish Rugby Football Union.
Kathryn Dane is a rugby union player from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. She plays scrum half for Old Belvedere and Ulster Rugby and has represented Ireland since the 2018 Women's Six Nations Championship. She works as a physiotherapist.
Stacey Flood is an Irish rugby player from Rathmines in Dublin. She plays for the Ireland women's national rugby Sevens team and the Ireland women's national rugby union team.
Claire Boles is an Irish rugby player from Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. She plays for Railway Union, Ulster and Ireland. She plays for the Ireland women's national rugby union team and the Ireland women's national rugby sevens team. She is a student based in Dublin.
Brittany Hogan is an Irish rugby player from Killinchy, Co Down. She plays for Old Belvedere, Ulster, the Ireland women's national rugby union team and the Ireland women's national rugby sevens team. She graduated from DCU with a First class honours in sports science and health in February 2022.
Erin King is an Irish Rugby Union player who plays for the Irish Rugby Sevens national team.
Megan Burns is an Irish rugby union player. She plays for the Irish national team since 2018 and represented her country at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Zac Ward is an Irish rugby union player. He represents Ireland internationally at Rugby Sevens, and joined Ulster on a trial basis ahead of the 2024–25 season. He is the son of former International Andy Ward.
