Austria national rugby union team

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Austria women's national rugby union team.

Austria

Nickname(s)	Steinböcke
Union	Austrian Rugby Federation
Head coach	Kurt Martin
Captain	Robert Schneider
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	87 (as of 30 March 2023)
Highest	85 (23 November 2020)
Lowest	88 (29 July 2019)
First international
Hungary 23–9 Austria   (3 May 1992 [1] )
Biggest win
Austria 95–3 Kosovo   (22 April 2023)
Biggest defeat
Austria 0–78 Ukraine   (14 May 1994)

The Austria national rugby union team is a third tier rugby union playing nation. They began playing international rugby in the early 1990s. Thus far, Austria has not made an appearance at any of the World Cups.

The national side is ranked 87th in the world, as of 16 January 2023. ^[2]

History

Austria played their first official international on 3 May 1992 against Hungary, losing 23 points to nine. Austria had another fixture against Hungary that year, it was the first home game, which they lost 5:3, as well as two games against Slovenia. Austria's first win came against Slovenia on 21 November 1992, winning 9:5. Austria played nations such as Croatia and Ukraine as well as regulars Slovenia.

From 1996 on Austria began winning more games, and only lost a few sporadic matches in the late 1990s, as they were now beating the European sides that had beaten them in the early 1990s. During the 2000s Austria were now playing a larger variety of nations. After not winning one game in 2002, Austria went on to win every fixture in 2004, creating an undefeated streak which was broken by Denmark in 2005.

Current squad

Squad for opening 2023-24 Rugby Europe Conference match against Hungary.

• Caps & age not updated.
• Head coach: Kurt Martin

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Adi Prapsilo	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Moritz Schwab	Hooker	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Omar El Agrebi	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	Vienna Celtic RFC
Alexander Bercovici	Lock	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Max Schwab	Lock	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Georg Leutgöb	Flanker	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Linz
Julian Tröndle	Flanker	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Graz
Robert Schneider	Number 8	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Fabian Wolfram	Scrum-half	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Peter Morris	Fly-half	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Julian Terler	Wing	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Alexander Ganzberger	Centre	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Linz
Benjamin Preclik	Centre	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Tobias Böhm	Wing	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Max Karpeles	Fullback	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Paul Hruschka	Prop	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Stefan Pauser	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	Wombats RC
Vincent Ritzberger	Lock	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Alexander Radomirov	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Fabian Unterlercher	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Michael Hehenberger	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}
Samuel Schönauer	Scrum-half	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	RC Donau
Clemens Mostbeck	??	{{{age}}}	{{{caps}}}	Vienna Celtic RFC

Record

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by the Austria national XV at test level up until 13 April 2024:

Against	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win percentage
Andorra	2	0	2	0	0%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	6	6	0	0	100%
Bulgaria	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Croatia	4	0	4	0	0%
Denmark	6	1	5	0	16.67%
Finland	1	0	1	0	0%
Germany	1	0	1	0	0%
Hungary	12	4	8	0	33.33%
Israel	4	1	3	0	25%
Latvia	2	0	2	0	0%
Lithuania	4	1	3	0	25%
Luxembourg	5	2	3	0	40%
Malta	1	0	1	0	0%
Moldova	2	1	1	0	50%
Norway	10	4	5	1	40%
Serbia	6	2	4	0	33.33%
Slovenia	19	7	12	0	36.84%
Sweden	2	0	2	0	0%
Switzerland	3	0	3	0	0%
Turkey	1	1	0	0	100%
Ukraine	2	0	2	0	0%
Total	96	32	63	1	33.33%

Coaches

Name	Years
Didier Louvat	2004-2007 [3]
Gael Mouysset	2007–'2013 [3]

References

1. http://www.rugby-austria.at/content/deutsch/nationalteam.spielplan.php Archived 2013-03-29 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
2. "Men's Rankings | World Rugby". Archived from the original on 2019-08-18. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
3. "Rugby Austria -". Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-04-20. (in German)

External links

• Österreichischer Rugby Verband - Official Site (in German)