RugbyFootballHistory.com

Year the National Rugby unions were founded:

• 1871 (England) Rugby Football Union (RFU)
• 1873 Scotland Rugby Union
• 1874 Southern (Australian) Rugby Union (later New South Wales Rugby Union)
• 1879 Irish Rugby Football Union (a merger of two Irish unions both formed in 1874)
• 1880 Welsh Rugby Union
• 1883 Northern (Australian) Rugby Union (later Queensland Rugby Union)
• 1889 South African Rugby Board
• 1892 New Zealand Rugby Football Union
• 1895 Rhodesia Rugby Football Union (Zimbabwe RFU after 1980)
• 1899 Argentinian Rugby Union
• 1900 German Rugby Union
• 1913 Fijian Rugby Union
• 1919 French Rugby Federation
• 1923 Kenya Rugby Union
• 1923 Spanish Rugby Federation
• 1923 Tongan Rugby Football Union
• 1924 Samoan Rugby Football Union
• 1926 Czech Rugby Union
• 1926 Japanese Rugby Football Union
• 1926 Portugal Rugby Union
• 1928 Italian Rugby Federation
• 1928 Trinidad and Tobago
• 1929 The original Rugby Union of Canada was founded in September, 1929, and lasted until the outbreak of the War in 1939. It was not revived until 1965 as the Canadian Rugby Union.
• 1931 Romanian Rugby Federation
• 1932 Netherlands Rugby Union
• 1932 Sweden Rugby Union
• 1934 Belgium Rugby Union
• 1935 Chile Rugby Union
• 1936 Russia Rugby Union
• 1938 Thailand Rugby Union
• 1945 Korea Rugby Union
• 1946 Jamaica Rugby Union
• 1948 Singapore Rugby Union
• 1949 Australian Rugby Union
• 1950 Denmark Rugby Union
• 1951 Uruguay Rugby Union
• 1952 Niue Rugby Union
• 1953 Hong Kong Rugby Union
• 1955 Uganda Rugby Union
• 1961 Cote d'Ivoire Rugby Federation
• 1961 Georgian Rugby Union
• 1965 Rugby Canada (founded as Canadian Rugby Union)
• 1972 Switzerland Rugby Union
• 1974 Luxembourg Rugby Union
• 1975 USA Rugby (founded as United States of America Rugby Football Union)
• 1982 Norway Rugby Union
• 1984 Arabian Gulf Rugby Union
• 1989 Cook Islands Rugby Union
• 1990 Namibian Rugby Union
• 1990 Hungary Rugby Union
• 1992 South African Rugby Football Union (a merger of the white South African Rugby Board and the non-racial South African Rugby Union)
• 1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 1996 Monaco Rugby Union
• 1997 Guam Rugby Union
• 1998 St Vincent and the Grenadines

World Rankings (external link - IRB.com)

RSS feed for rankings (external link)