Moldova national rugby union team

The Moldova national rugby union team represent Moldova at rugby union. They are governed by the Federatia de Rugby din Moldovei, and have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

History
Moldova played their first international on October 10, 1991 against Lithuania. Moldova won the match, 22 points to six. The next year they played against Bulgaria, which Moldova won, 42 points to three. Moldova played Hungary in 1995, which they won, by three points, 17 to 14.

They played Georgia, who defeated them 47 to five. They then played Ukraine and Latvia and Bulgaria.

Moldova played twice in 1997, defeating Norway and losing to Croatia. They won a number of fixtures in 2000. They played the Netherlands the following year. The national rugby team was designated by the members of Moldova's Sports Press Association as the best Moldovan team in 2004. Following this, they played in qualifying tournaments for the 2007 Rugby World Cup European qualifiy.

Moldova were grouped in Pool B of the second round, and they won two of their four matches, which saw them finish second in their pool behind Germany, and thus move onto round three and enter Pool A.

On May 5 2007, Moldova made perhaps their greatest achievement to date by defeating Ukraine 17-16 away from home to finish at top of the table in the first of a two year cycle in the European Nations Cup, Division 2A. They will play the second leg of fixtures in 2008, aiming to win the competition which would give them promotion to ENC Division 1, where the likes of Romania, Georgia and Russia play.

Popularity
Perhaps surprisingly, the popularity of rugby in Moldova is growing rapidly, with well over 10,000 fans regularly turning up to their home matches in the European Nations Cup. Since 2004, the number of Moldovan rugby players has more than doubled, due to the national team's growing international reptutation.

Notable players
Moldovan international Alexei Cotruta was the top try-scorer in the Russian Professional Rugby League in 2006, scoring 16 tries in 14 matches for Moscow-area side VVA-Podmoskovye.