Rugby union in Croatia

[3] Rugby union in pre-independence Croatia was a moderately popular sport, but due to its recent international successes, it is gaining more recognition.

However, it ironically had something of a minor revival in Croatia, when occupying British troops started to play regular games against the locals in the 1990s.

By that point there were a thousand registered players in the country, and fourteen clubs, and some fifty Croats playing in the France's top three divisions.

[3] In the early 1990s, former Italian cap, Dr Giancarlo Tizanini was a major driving force in Austrian rugby.

Before his death in 1994, he tried hard to establish a Central European equivalent of the Six Nations between Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia.

Currently members of the Croatian Rugby Federation are the following teams (and cities in brackets) The woman's club is called Viktorija Zagreb.

Also in season 2007/08 onward, a Regional Rugby Championship was set up with teams from Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and others.