The seed of modern-day Rugby League in Ireland was sown when in 1989 the Dublin Blues were formed and founded by Brian Corrigan. They consisted mostly of rugby union players who wanted to stay fit over the summer.
The Blues competed against touring teams from Britain and surprised many of the touring sides with the quality of their play, scoring many memorable victories over British amateur teams.
In early 1995 the British Rugby Football League marketing arm financed the position of a Development Officer for Ireland, providing a massive boost to the growth of the game.
In the same year Ireland formed its very first competitive team to play against the USA in Washington on St. Patrick's Day. Ireland won 24-22 with Wigan legend Joe Lydon coming on as a replacement. He had gone out there as a manager but was drafted in to play. Terry Flanagan, Huddersfield Coach and former Great Britain player and Niel Wood, Director of British Student Rugby League, coached the team..

Competitive matches were established between teams in Leinster and Ulster : Schoolboy matches were played between Dublin and Belfast schools, Open Age Clubs competed against each other in the All-Ireland Challenge Cup. Teams included Belfast Wildcats and Bangor Vikings from Ulster. From Leinster, there were Dublin-based Dublin Blues, North Side Saints, Tallaght Tigers, Churchtown Warriors and Bray-based East Coast Panthers. From Munster the Cork Bulls were formed under the guidance of Ex-Dublin Blues stalwart Peter McNamara. Northside Saints and Cork Bulls had their successes but the long-established Dublin Blues were always pre-eminent and there or thereabouts when it came to the trophy presentations.

In August 1995 Ireland beat Scotland at the RDS in Dublin. The game was played as a curtain raiser to the British Charity Shield encounter between Wigan and Leeds. The Irish team that day included former Great Britain player Des Foy
These two victories ensured that Ireland were included in the Emerging Nations World Cup in the Autumn of 1995. Coached by Flanagan and Wood the Ireland team beat Moldova and Morocco but lost 22-6 to the Cook Islands in the final held at Gigg Lane, Bury in England.

In February 1996 a Senior Irish squad travelled to Fiji to participate in the Inaugural Super League World Nines. Ireland managed to finish 8th out of 16 nations. During the tournament Ireland played Japan, France, New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga.

Following discussions between Australian legend Mal Meninga and Ireland's Niel Wood, an unofficial 'test' was organised between Ireland and the World Champions, Australia on 20th February 1996. The match was played at the Fiji National Stadium and Australia won 20-12. Australians playing that day included: Laurie Daley (Capt.), Ricky Stuart, Andrew Ettinghausen, Brett Mullins, Wendell Sailor, Jason Hetherington, Simon Gillies, Robbie Beckett, Mark Geyer and Steve Renouf.

In 1996 a second St. Patrick's Day match was played against the USA. Phelim Comerford kicked three goals to ensure a 14-12 victory.

In August 1996 the Ireland team lined out against Scotland and were beaten 26-6. Both teams fielded a few professionals: Scotland included Alan Tait , Matt Crowther, Danny Russell and Darren Shaw.

The Ireland team included Martin Crompton, James Lowes and Bernard Dwyer. The rest of the Irish team was made up of a few professionals from the lower divisions in England, a couple of ex-professionals, a few amateurs from the English amateur leagues and players from the fledgling Irish domestic competition.

In 1997 more England-based Super League players made themselves available for Ireland by use of the grandparent rule. The Irish team improved its standards but this development gave less opportunity for Irish-based players to get a chance to play. However, Irish-based players were included in the Irish squad for the triangular tournaments in 1998 against France and Scotland and 1999 against Scotland and Wales.

Their success was enough to earn a place in the 2000 World Cup. Finishing top of their group, the Irish eventually lost 26-16 to England in the quarter-finals, but the performance set the scene for future developments in Ireland.

In 2006 the Leinster and Munster conferences were abandoned in favour of an all-Ireland league. This had great difficulties while it attempted to compete with the Rugby Union season and unfortunately the end of the season was scrapped in order to get to the play off finals. Hard lessons were learnt as a result of this. At the AGM in 2006 the league structure was again reviewed and this time the shorter season was agreed on but with a tiered system. The tiers would allow newer teams and less experienced teams to play against one another and continue their development while the more established teams would compete against each other and enhance the players skills for games against other representative teams.

And in 2007 a three league approach with the Elite league and two conferences based on geography gave the game a terrific boost. The newly elected executive also set about making the product more recognised and developing new relationships with potential sponsors. The Leeds Rhino's brought their pre season training camp to Dublin. The leagues each had a major sponsor and all results were published in various media outlets. The wolfhound draw was converted to the Wolfhound Supporters Network.

Ireland has played in 22 full internationals, winning 14 and losing seven with one draw. As it is not a full member of the Rugby League International Federation, these matches are not considered to be tests. Ireland has also played friendlies against Australia and Scotland that are not included in these results.

The Ireland A Wolfhounds team is selected from players in the Irish domestic competition. This team is administered by Rugby League Ireland

Rugby League Ireland
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Telephone: +353 1202 0056 Fax: +353 1230 1044 Email: info@rli.ie Web: http://www.rli.ie/

Foundation Year: 1989 Affiliated Since: 2000 RLIF Status: Affiliate Nation