The visiting cruisers of the British Royal Navy, HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Norfolk played the first recorded match in Stockholm[2] The sport became well established in this period thanks also to the efforts of Yves Gylden, who had learnt the game in France, and founded the first three Swedish clubs in Stockholm.
[2] Sweden was neutral in this conflict, meaning that the game did not suffer the war casualties that it did in other countries.
[2] A persistent problem for Swedish rugby has been the climate, which means that many pitches may be under snow for large parts of the year.
For this reason rugby is a summer sport in Sweden, the season running from late April to the middle of October.
Notable players include: The Allsvenskan is the highest tier of the national rugby union competition in Sweden.