The East Germany national rugby union team was the representative side of East Germany in rugby union during the country's existence from 1949 to 1990.
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a country that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. It described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state", and the territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II — the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR.
Rugby union, commonly known in most of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts at each end.
East Germany played its first rugby international in 1951 in Bucharest against the Romanians, losing 26-64. The East Germans played against mostly Eastern Bloc countries, but they did play Netherlands (once), Sweden (three times), Denmark (twice) and Luxembourg (once). Their one-game against Luxembourg also happened to be their last, taking place shortly before the reunification of Germany in 1990. Despite requests from its West German counterpart, the East German rugby body, DTSB, refused to permit an international against West Germany to take place and the two teams never played each other over their 40-year history.
Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, at 44°25′57″N26°06′14″E, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than 60 km (37.3 mi) north of the Danube River and the Bulgarian border.
The Romania national rugby union team, nicknamed The Oaks (Stejarii), is long considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations. They have participated in all but one Rugby World Cup and currently compete in the first division of the European Nations Cup, which they won most recently in 2017. Rugby union in Romania is administered by the Romanian Rugby Federation. The team plays in yellow and blue strips.
The Eastern Bloc was the group of Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and Southeast Asia under the hegemony of the Soviet Union (USSR) during the Cold War (1947–1991) in opposition to the non-Communist Western Bloc. Generally, in Western Europe the term Eastern Bloc comprised the USSR and its East European satellite-states in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon); in Asia, the Socialist bloc comprised the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Kampuchea; the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China ; and in the Americas, the Communist Bloc included the Caribbean Republic of Cuba, since 1961.
The team did not compete in the FIRA championship but did take part in a number of four-nation tournaments: 1961 in Brno, 1964 in Malmö, 1978, 1979 and 1983 in Bulgaria (Varna and Nesebar).
Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic by population and area, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative center of the South Moravian Region in which it forms a separate district. The city lies at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers and has about 400,000 inhabitants; its greater metropolitan area is home to more than 800,000 people while its larger urban zone had a population of about 730,000 in 2004.
Malmö is the largest city of the Swedish county of Skåne County, the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in Scandinavia, with a population of 312,012 inhabitants in 2017 out of a municipal total of 338,230. The Malmö Metropolitan Region is home to over 700,000 people, and the Øresund Region, which includes Malmö, is home to 4 million people.
Varna is the third-largest city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Situated strategically in the Gulf of Varna, the city has been a major economic, social and cultural centre for almost three millennia. Varna, historically known as Odessos, grew from a Thracian seaside settlement to a major seaport on the Black Sea.
GDR Coaches
The coaches of the GDR national team were the following:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Related Research Articles
The Luxembourg national football team is the national football team of Luxembourg, and is controlled by the Luxembourg Football Federation. The team plays most of its home matches at the Stade Josy Barthel in Luxembourg City.
The Luxembourg national rugby union team is a minor team, and is ranked as a third tier nation. The team participates in the annual Rugby Europe Championship Conference 2 North 2017–18 Rugby Europe Conference. Since 1996 Luxembourg also competes in the sevens circuits in Europe Luxembourg national rugby sevens team.
The Russia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Bears, is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia (RUR). The RUR is considered the official successor union of the Soviet Union by World Rugby and the combined CIS team which played in the early 1990s. Since 1992, the team has played as Russia. Its first test match as Russia was against the Barbarians in Moscow in June 1992 and the country's first test against an official Test nation was against Belgium later that same year.
The Germany national rugby union team currently plays at the second level of European rugby but is yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. The national team first played in 1927, with rugby union in Germany being administered by the German Rugby Federation.
The Israel national rugby union team is governed by Rugby Israel, which oversees all rugby union in Israel. As of 1 February 2015, Israel is ranked 57th in the IRB World Rankings.
The Poland national rugby union team is governed by the Polish Rugby Union and has been participating in international rugby since 1958. Poland have yet to play in a Rugby World Cup. They play in red and white.
The Hungary national rugby union team is governed by the Hungarian Rugby Union. They have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup, although they have entered qualifiers for all the tournaments from the 1995 edition onwards. They compete annually in the European Nations Cup, currently in Division 2C.
Rugby union in Kenya is a popular sport, in particular due to the success of the Kenya national rugby sevens team in the rugby sevens format, and tournaments such as the Safari Sevens, which has been growing yearly, and now includes numerous international teams.
Rugby union is a moderately popular team sport played in Romania with a tradition of more than 100 years. The Romanian men's national team was 14th in the IRB World Rankings in February 2016.
Rugby Club Luxembourg, abbreviated to RCL, is a rugby union club, based in Cessange, Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. Luxembourg has no domestic league of its own, so RCL plays in neighbouring countries' leagues; they currently play in the German Rugby-Bundesliga, having previously competed in the Belgian and French National Leagues.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina national rugby union team has yet to make its debut at the Rugby World Cup. Bosnia and Herzegovina have been playing international rugby since the early 1990s.
Rugby union in Germany is a minor but growing sport with 124 men's clubs and 5 women's clubs competing in 4 men's and 1 women's national leagues.
Rugby union in Azerbaijan is a growing sport. They are currently unranked in the International Rugby Board's world rankings, which ranks only the top ninety-five countries. The governing body for Azerbaijan is Azerbaycan Reqbi Federasiyasl.
The 2. Rugby-Bundesliga is the second-highest level of Germany's Rugby union league system, organised by the German Rugby Federation. Its set below the Rugby-Bundesliga, the top-tier of German rugby, and above the Rugby-Regionalliga, the third tier.
Rugby union in Hungary is a minor but growing sport.
Rugby union in Luxembourg is a minor but growing sport.
The RC Leipzig is a German rugby union club from Leipzig, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga, the top tier of German rugby.
Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby.
