Rugby Union in Israel

Rugby union remains a relatively small sport in Israel, but its institutions span domestic clubs, national teams, youth development and, since 2021, a professional club. A 2011 snapshot put Israel Rugby Union membership at about 500, including 60 women, with roughly one-third of members over 18.[1] Tel Aviv Heat's launch in 2021 added the country's first professional rugby team.[2]

Men's domestic play is centered on fifteens, while the women's league primarily plays sevens.[3] Recent development has included a regional league, renovated facilities in Tel Aviv, women's clubs around the country and a seven-team girls' tag-rugby league.[4][5]

Rugby's arrival in Israel is attributed to immigrants from rugby-playing countries, particularly India and South Africa, though no precise date for the sport's earliest introduction has been established.[6] A 2011 report traces the game's presence to the British Mandate era, with a local league existing since the beginning of the 1970s.[1]

A 2014 Jerusalem Post history describes Leo Camron — a former Natal player who made aliyah in 1951 and joined the Israel Defense Forces sports department — as organizing Israel's first rugby match, a contest between South African immigrants and IDF Paratroopers that the South Africans won 18–6.[7] The same account separately refers to a first recorded match in 1952 and notes that the ball used was reportedly a shoe wrapped in a towel.[7]

A first-person account offers a complementary picture of the sport's early organized years, describing a wave of enthusiasm in the late 1960s and early 1970s driven by young immigrants from rugby-playing countries who arrived in growing numbers, especially following the Six-Day War.[8] In spring 1971, two South African students approached the author at Tel Aviv University and informal touch-rugby sessions began.[8] Players subsequently organized a match at Kibbutz Geva against a team from Kibbutz Yizre'el. With no rugby posts available, participants improvised by lashing water pipes to the football goalposts; Kibbutz Yizre'el won 22–12.[8] The account says interest later spread to Ra'anana, Haifa, Jerusalem and several other kibbutzim.[8]

By the summer of 1971, the first-person account describes expansion into two informal leagues and a trial between representative northern and southern sides to choose a squad to face a British Forces side from Cyprus.[8] Equipment including balls and jerseys was obtained through contacts with figures in South African rugby. The author also recalled proposing that organizers seek advice from Abba Eban at the Foreign Office, a suggestion that proved unpopular.[8]

In contemporary Israeli competition, men's teams generally play fifteens, while the women's league mainly uses sevens. Fifteens matches last 80 minutes; sevens matches last 14 minutes and are organized in tournament format. Women's tournaments are held on Fridays rather than Saturdays to accommodate religiously observant players.[3]

The Israel Rugby Football Union was officially formed in 1972, with Max Miodownik, a former Johannesburg resident, serving as its first president.[7] That same year, a National League was established with teams from Hebrew University, Kibbutzim Tzora and Nachshon, the Haifa Technion, and Ramat Gan.[7] Leo Camron, the South African immigrant credited with organizing the earliest known match, served the union as coach and referee.[7] Jack Rabin succeeded Miodownik as president, followed by Teddy Edelstein in 1978 and later Cyril Morris of Ra'anana, described by the 2014 account as "The Father of Israeli Rugby."[7]

In 1972, Israel hosted the Cyprus Lions, a touring side composed of British Army troops, and won 14–12.[7] The following season brought a far stiffer challenge: Northern Transvaal, the Currie Cup winners, visited with a squad that included six Springboks. Israel lost by 70 points, though captain Scot Wilson — a former Scottish international — scored the side's only try in a play that sparked debate over whether he had handled the ball in the scrum.[7] The match was nonetheless described as a watershed that raised rugby's profile in Israel.[7]

The 1978–79 season saw Israel host touring teams from Pretoria, Cape Town University, Australian Maccabi, Argentina and the Cyprus Lions, the last of which was managed by Jewish Springbok Cecil Moss.[7] An annual seven-a-side memorial tournament was also established during this period in memory of Dudi Silbowitz, who was killed in the Yom Kippur War.[7]

Israel played its first international match in Switzerland in 1981, the game ending in a 9–9 draw.[7] The sport's domestic popularity grew further after rugby was included in the Maccabiah Games, and national coach Alan Polatinsky worked with junior players and established a Junior League within a year of his appointment.[7] An Israeli team invited to tour France by the French Rugby Union in 1986–87 did not win a match, but Israeli players were praised by local mayors and Jewish communities as ambassadors of the country.[7]

Israel received Associate Membership of the International Rugby Football Board in 1988, making it eligible for World Cup preliminary rounds.[7] In the preliminary stage of 1995 World Cup qualifying, Israel defeated Hungary 67–8 before being eliminated in the group stage; the campaign's camaraderie and the support of fans from across the country were credited with boosting rugby's popularity.[7]

The sport's national profile was reinforced at the July 2013 Maccabiah Games, when Israel won gold in rugby for the first time, defeating Australia — the 2009 gold medalists — in front of a crowd so large there was, in one account's words, "hardly a blade of grass to stand on" at the Wingate final.[7] Brothers Yonatan and Nimrod Kaplan captained separate Israeli rugby teams at those Games: Yonatan led the fifteen-a-side team and Nimrod the seven-a-side team.[7]

During the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying campaign, Israel entered its match against Denmark already confirmed as Division 2B winner, then won 46–3 at Wingate. The result lifted the country two places to a then-record ranking of 50th in the IRB World Rankings.[7] The campaign also included victories over Latvia, Andorra and Serbia. Israel defeated Luxembourg 26–12 away in October 2013 and advanced to the third round, where the Netherlands eliminated Israel 52–8.[7]

A 2011 report said Israeli national teams had regularly participated in European Rugby Championship and Rugby World Cup competitions since the mid-1980s.[1] By 2025, Israeli men were playing fifteens and the women's league was playing sevens, with a national sevens team competing internationally.[3] A notable diplomatic milestone came in March 2021, when the Israeli and United Arab Emirates national rugby teams played in Dubai in what was described as their first match and likely their first friendly sporting encounter.[9]

Israel's first professional rugby team, Tel Aviv Heat, was launched in July 2021.[2] The Israel Rugby Union held the majority ownership stake, with Pro Rugby Partners Ltd. holding the remainder and managing the team's budget, marketing, partnerships, operations and human resources.[2] The planned squad combined players eligible for Israel's national team with professional club players from Europe, South Africa, the United States and Oceania.[2]

Tel Aviv Heat was a founding member of the Rugby Europe Super Cup, an annual European club competition for nations outside the Six Nations, designed to provide a high-performance pathway and bridge domestic and international competition.[2] In the inaugural season, eight teams competed in eastern and western conferences, with the top two in each group advancing to semifinals. Tel Aviv Heat was placed in the Eastern Conference alongside Georgia's Black Lions and Russia's Enisei-STM and Lokomotiv-Penza.[2]

The club's launch was set against the backdrop of an earlier Israeli rugby initiative: in 1998, Jerusalem hosted an International Rugby Sevens Tournament at which Fiji defeated New Zealand.[2] Jerusalem had been expected to join the annual International Grand Prix of Rugby Sevens but lost its place on the roster following the outbreak of the second intifada.[2] Tel Aviv Heat's founding was characterized as a new effort, 23 years later, to raise the game's profile in Israel.[2]

In May 2025, a renovated pitch at Tel Aviv's Hatikva Stadium was inaugurated with an exhibition match between the women's and youth teams, followed by a regional league fixture between the Golden Jackals and North Stars.[5] The Israel Rugby Union was reported to be seeking a new base in the central region, with plans for a match against Romania and some Maccabiah fixtures at the venue.[5]

The Israeli domestic league has historically been concentrated around Hapoel Yizreel and Maccabi Tel Aviv, the two clubs that have shared every national title since Ra'anana's 2001–02 championship.[10] Hapoel Yizreel is the most decorated club in Israeli rugby, with 24 national titles, while Maccabi Tel Aviv has won 15.[10] In May 2026, Maccabi Tel Aviv completed a perfect 13–0 season and defeated Hapoel Yizreel 50–17 in the championship final at Hadar Yosef, ending a seven-year title drought and halting Yizreel's run of five consecutive championships.[10]

As of 2011, the Israel Rugby Union reported approximately 500 registered members, of whom around 60 were women and roughly one-third were over 18 years of age.[1] A regional league was introduced and was in its second season as of May 2025, reflecting efforts to broaden the sport's geographic footprint.[5]

Women's rugby in Israel traces its origins to Jerusalem in the late 1990s, when a group of religious Anglo-Saxon women formed the country's first women's rugby team.[11] With no other women's teams in Israel at the time, matches could initially only be held among the members of that single squad.[11] The pioneering Jerusalem team eventually dissolved, and activity shifted toward Tel Aviv, where a team was established under university sponsorship.[11]

In 2005, the European Rugby Association invited Israel to send a women's team to an official rugby sevens championship, prompting the formation of Israel's first women's national rugby team.[11] The team finished ninth among 12 nations at that inaugural international event.[11] Israel reached the World Championship qualifiers in 2008, facing major rugby nations including England and Spain without finishing last.[11] After a difficult 2012 tournament that included heavy defeats, the women's team was relegated to Tier B — the third and lowest level of European competition — but in each of the two following seasons finished third in Tier B and narrowly missed promotion.[11]

The women's game has remained largely amateur. As of 2015, players on the national squad held other jobs and in some cases bore travel costs themselves; coach Miki Weizmann received a symbolic salary of 800 shekels per month.[11] To finance a friendly tournament in Athens, the team ran a crowdfunding campaign and ultimately finished second.[11]

By 2019, the women's league comprised six clubs and operated mainly in the sevens format because of the limited player pool, though teams occasionally assembled for the fifteen-a-side version.[12] Ra'anana Raptor Otzma, a 16-player team with players aged 24 to 43, had won the Israeli championship the previous year, ending Tel Aviv's dominance of the women's competition.[12] The team's founders, Liat Kogon and Liat Geller — who had played for the national team for seven years and coached the club, respectively — initially trained under a lamp in Ra'anana Park. Sponsor Dorot Merkaz Otzma later helped fund equipment for a training camp in Georgia, playing fields and a basic coach's salary.[12]

Women's clubs named in a 2026 report included Upper Galilee, Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Owls (Maccabi Rishon LeZion), Jerusalem, Hadarim and Maccabi Haifa, competing in Women's Sevens League tournaments.[4] Girls play alongside boys in some clubs up to age 14, and a girls' tag-rugby league — the first of its kind in Israel, featuring seven teams — was launched in cooperation with the School Sport Federation.[4] About 30% of public funding for rugby has been allocated to women's activities and girls' programs.[4]

Israel's women's tournaments are held on Fridays rather than Saturdays out of respect for religiously observant players.[3] Players participate in a variety of clothing, including shorts, skirts and headscarves, reflecting the league's diverse membership.[3] Jerusalem's women's team exemplified recent growth, expanding from five players to 19 — the largest roster in its league — and improving from last place to fourth out of seven teams.[3]

At the 2026 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Conference Championship in Andorra, Israel's women's sevens team finished third among 11 nations.[13] After losing to Finland in pool play, Israel beat Luxembourg 46–0 and Bosnia and Herzegovina 45–5, then defeated Bulgaria 41–0 in the quarterfinal before losing the semifinal to Latvia 24–19.[13] Israel secured bronze with a 14–12 victory over Slovakia, with Maya Zini making her senior international debut, Anna Rogatnikov scoring her first try for Israel, and Shahar Tzafrir recording her first international try.[13]

Israeli rugby has faced a politically contested exclusion on the international stage. In February 2023, the South African Rugby Union disinvited an Israeli team from an international competition; contemporaneous reports identified it as Tel Aviv Heat's invitation to the Mzansi Challenge and linked the cancellation to pressure from BDS activists.[14][5] South African Rugby's CEO described the decision as made "to avoid the likelihood of the competition becoming a source of division," while noting that Israel remained a full member of World Rugby.[14] World Rugby subsequently accepted the explanation that the withdrawal was based on increased safety and security concerns and concluded that the decision was not discriminatory.[14]

Tel Aviv Heat CEO Pete Sickle disputed the safety explanation, stating that the team had not seen tangible evidence of credible and significant threats or evidence that such threats had been properly analyzed before the decision was made.[15] A spokesperson for South African Friends of Israel criticized the union, alleging that it had yielded to political extremists who threatened violence.[14] The episode preceded the formation of Israel's regional rugby league, which a 2025 report characterized as a domestic response to the exclusion.[5]