Andorra national rugby union team

The Andorra national rugby union team, nicknamed Els Isards (which is a Pyrenean Chamois) represent the Andorran Rugby Federation (FAR) in international rugby union competitions. They play most of their home games in Andorra la Vella, the country's capital, though have had some matches in Foix, which is in France.

Andorra

Nickname	Els Isards
Union	Federació Andorrana de Rugby
Head coach	Jeannot Martinho
Captain	Jonathan Garcia
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	88 (as of 16 January 2023)
Highest	72 (23 November 2020)
First international
Andorra 24 – 3 Luxembourg (1 July 1987)
Biggest win
Andorra 76 – 3 Norway (4 September 2004)
Biggest defeat
Andorra 3 – 89 Malta (24 March 2018)

They compete in the European Nations Cup, and are currently in the second division. As well as playing numerous friendlies they have also taken part in the qualification stages of the Rugby World Cup, competing in every tournament since 1995.

The national side is ranked 88th in the world, as of 16 January 2023.

History

The first international game that Andorra played was on 8 November 1987 when they took on Luxembourg in the third division of the 1987–89 FIRA Trophy. Andorra would win that match 24–3 to receive their only win in the third division as they lost both games to Bulgaria and the reverse game. After qualifying for the second division in the following year, they would finish bottom of their group which would feature Morocco, Tunisia and Portugal.

Andorra attempted to qualify for the 1995 Rugby World Cup. They competed in the preliminary round in the west group of the European qualification. They defeated Denmark, but lost to Switzerland, and were knocked out.

Andorra also attempted to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Andorra started off in Pool 3 of Round 1, and won all four of their fixtures, finishing at the top of the final standings to advance through to Round 2. However they were then knocked out of qualifying after Round 2 coming last in a five team group.

They competed in Pool B of Round 1 in attempting to qualify for the 2003 World Cup, but did not advance to the next stage coming third in a six team group.

The 2007 tournament saw many more fixtures and gained the small nation some greater publicity by playing in the first match of the tournament, beating Norway 76–3. They won a 2 leg match, came third in the ensuing five team group thus qualifying for a further 2 leg playoff, victory in which led to a further five team group in which they were last. Competing with the more populous Moldova, Netherlands, Spain and Poland, having beaten Norway, Hungary, Slovenia and Sweden certainly brought Andorra to the attention of more rugby followers, all in spite of a small population of just 70,000.

Popularity

The popularity of football in Andorra has been on the decline due to a poor record at home and away. This has left room for Andorran rugby to rise out of the shadows. Mainly affected by the fanatical popularity of rugby in southern France, Els Isards continue to impress on the international stage. This has led to the rapid increase in the number of registered players in Andorra. Many are now suggesting that rugby in Andorra has grown to such an extent that it has now become the tiny nation's national sport.

As well as a men's 15 aside team, the men have competed in the European Sevens competition since 2005. In 2005 they won promotion to the next division and in both 2006 and 2007 made the finals of the competition.

Also Andorra have a women's set up. They have only played sevens so far, competing in 2006 and 2007.

Youth rugby in Andorra is less developed and has to date only consisted of training camps.

Men's 15-a-side results

Analysis

Andorra have played friendlies, FIRA competitions and World Cup Qualifiers. The full results list including details of unplayed games can be found below. The various game types can be summarised as follows – note that unfulfilled and defaulted games are NOT included in the analysis although they do count towards the game count in the full list. Also if a game has been both a World Cup and FIRA game then it is only recorded here in the World Cup figures.

Match Type	P	W	D	L	%	F	A	D	Notes
Friendly	6	2	0	4	33	41	65	−24
Regional	43	16	1	26	38	618	897	−279
World Cup	31	14	0	17	45	651	736	−85
All Games	80	32	1	47	41	1310	1698	−388

Matches against individual teams can be summarised as follows

Nation	GP	W	D	L	%	PF	PA	PD	Notes
Armenia	1	1	0	0	100	36	10	26
Austria	2	2	0	0	100	77	15	62
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4	2	0	2	50	103	62	41
Bulgaria	6	2	0	4	33	95	95	0
Czech Republic	3	1	0	2	33	26	104	−78
Croatia	4	1	0	3	25	41	62	−21
Cyprus	3	2	0	1	66.7	47	57	−10
Denmark	2	2	0	0	100	11	5	6
Germany	1	0	0	1	0	11	56	−45
Hungary	4	3	0	1	75	116	58	58	There is also one unfulfilled fixture
Israel	1	1	0	0	100	19	13	6
Luxembourg	7	4	1	2	64	124	66	58
Lithuania	2	1	0	1	50	64	50	14
Latvia	2	0	0	2	0	30	54	−24	There is also one unfulfilled fixture
Malta	2	1	0	1	50	41	47	−6
Moldova	1	0	0	1	0	16	23	−7	There is also one unfulfilled fixture and one defeat by default
Monaco	2	2	0	0	100	43	16	27
Morocco	2	0	0	2	0	19	63	−44
Netherlands	3	0	0	3	0	16	140	−124
Norway	2	2	0	0	100	99	12	87
Portugal	3	0	0	3	0	32	115	−83
Poland	5	0	0	5	0	43	154	−111
Serbia	1	0	0	1	0	7	32	−25
Slovenia	4	2	0	2	50	85	70	15
Spain	3	0	0	3	0	17	129	−112
Sweden	4	2	0	2	50	67	79	−12	There is also one win by default
Switzerland	4	0	0	4	0	48	94	−46	There is also one win by default
Tunisia	4	1	0	3	25	48	80	−32
Turkey	1	0	0	1	12	36	-24	−32
Yugoslavia	4	3	0	1	75	56	43	13	There is also one unfulfilled fixture
TOTALS	81	32	1	48	41	1322	1734	−388

Current squad

Starting line-up for opening 2023-24 Rugby Europe Conference match against Denmark.

• Caps & age not updated.
• Head coach: Thierry Barbiere

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Lluc Cunill	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Irakli Berdzenishvili	Hooker	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Benjamin Franken	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Xavier Vicente	Lock	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Bastien Trape	Lock	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	Stade Niçois
Nil Tomé	Flanker	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Galdric Calvet	Flanker	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Tiago Macedo	Number 8	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Leon Laguerre	Scrum-half	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Sacha Franken	Fly-half	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Storm Fachaux	Wing	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Josep Arasanz	Centre	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Adrià Calvo	Centre	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Adrià Santuré	Wing	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Thibaut Trape	Fullback	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Didac Garcia	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Pol Arias	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Miquel Ortega	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Ricardo Quintino	Lock	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Marcel Montella	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Arnau Granyena	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Ian Granyena	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	VPC Andorra XV
Victor Casajuana	Centre	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}

References

Sources

• IRB
• ITV
• FIRA-AER
• Websites of unions mentioned
• Scrum.com
• Rugbyinternational.net

External links

• Federació Andorrana de Rugby – Official Site
• [1] – Andorran Rugby Fan Site
• Andorra on IRB.com