Early years: 1875–1900 Dublin University was the first organised rugby football club in Ireland, having been founded in 1854. The club was organised by students who had learnt the game while at public schools in
Great Britain. During the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and following the adoption of a set of official rules in 1868, rugby football began to spread quickly throughout Ireland, resulting in the formation of several other clubs that are still in existence, including NIFC (1868); Wanderers (1869); Queen's University (1869); Lansdowne (1873); Dungannon (1873); County Carlow (1873); UCC (1874); and Ballinasloe (1875) which amalgamated with Athlone to form Buccaneers. In December 1874, the Irish Football Union was formed. Initially, there were two unions: the
Irish Football Union, which had jurisdiction over clubs in
Leinster,
Munster and parts of
Ulster and the Northern Football Union of Ireland which formed in January 1875 and controlled the
Belfast area. The
IRFU was formed in 1879 as an amalgamation of these two organisations, convening for the first time on 5 February 1880. Ireland lost their first test match against
England 0–7 at
the Oval on 15 February 1875. Both teams fielded 20 players in this match, as was customary in the early years of rugby union; it was not until 1877 that the number of players was reduced from 20 to 15. That same year Ireland's first home match, also against England, was held at
Leinster Cricket Club's
Observatory Lane ground in
Rathmines, as Lansdowne Road was deemed unsuitable. The first match at
Lansdowne Road was held on 11 March 1878, with England beating Ireland by two goals and a try to nil. Following a six-year period of defeats, in 1881 Ireland finally achieved their first test victory, beating
Scotland at Ormeau in
Belfast, following a late drop goal from John C Bagot. Ireland turned up two men short for their test in
Cardiff in 1884 and had to borrow two Welsh players. Ireland's first test match victory at Lansdowne Road on 5 February 1887, was also their first win over England, with the final score of two goals to nil. Of the eighteen players used in the three games, thirteen were from three Dublin clubs – Wanderers, Dublin University and Bective Rangers – and the remaining five were from
Ulster. They went on to win the
Home international championship twice more before the century was out (1896 and 1899), so that by 1901 all four of the Home Unions had tasted success at a game that was growing in popularity with players and spectators.
Early 20th century: 1901–45 Such was the level of interest in the visit of the first
New Zealand team to Dublin in November 1905 that the IRFU made the match the first all-ticket rugby international in history. Ireland played only seven forwards, copying the then New Zealand method of playing a "rover". The game ended New Zealand 15 Ireland 0. On 20 March 1909, Ireland played
France for the first time, beating them 19–8. This was Ireland's biggest victory in international rugby at that time, their highest points tally and a record five tries. 30 November 1912 was the first time the Springboks met Ireland at Lansdowne Road, the 1906 tour game having been played at Ravenhill. Ireland with seven new caps were overwhelmed by a record margin of 38–0, still a record loss to South Africa who scored 10 tries. In 1926, Ireland went into their final Five Nations match unbeaten and with the Grand Slam at stake lost to Wales in Swansea. Ireland again came close to a grand slam in 1927 when their sole loss was an 8–6 defeat by England.
Post-war: 1945–70 In 1948, Ireland clinched their first
Grand Slam in the Five Nations. Ireland were champions and Triple Crown winners again in 1949. In 1951, Ireland were once more crowned Five Nations champions. 1952 saw only Ireland's second overseas tour, the first for over half a century – as they headed to Argentina for a nine-match trip. The tour included two test matches, their Test record being won one, drawn one. In total, out of the nine matches played, the Irish side was only defeated once by
Club Pucará. On 27 February 1954, Ireland played Scotland at
Ravenhill in
Belfast. The 11 Republic-based players protested "
God Save the Queen", and an abbreviated anthem known as "the Salute" was instead played. Ireland beat Scotland 6–0, and did not play in Northern Ireland again until 2007. In 1958, Ireland beat Australia 9–6 in Dublin, the first time a major touring team had been defeated. In the 1958–59 season Ireland came second in the Five Nations beating both Scotland and France who had already won the series. Ireland managed just three victories in the Five Nations Championship during the early 1960s: against England in 1961, Wales in 1963 and England again in 1964. 1965 saw an improvement as Ireland beat England and Scotland. On 10 April 1965 at Lansdowne Road Ireland recorded their first ever win over South Africa. In January 1967 Ireland again beat Australia in Dublin, 15–8. Ireland became the first of the
home nations to win in the Southern Hemisphere and the first of the Five Nations sides to win in Australia, when they beat Australia 5–11, in Sydney in May 1967. The championship remained unresolved with Wales and Ireland unbeaten. In 1973, despite similar threats, England fulfilled their fixture and were given a five-minute standing ovation. Ireland won 18–9. Ireland came close to a first win over the All Blacks on 20 January 1973, but drew 10–10. In 1974, Ireland won their first Five Nations Championship since 1951.
Syd Millar succeeded Ronnie Dawson in July 1972 as Ireland coach.
Roly Meates succeeded Millar in July 1975. Meates was sacked in 1977 after winning only one match in two seasons;
Noel Murphy was appointed his successor.
Tom Kiernan succeeded Murphy in 1980. The decision to play two tests in
apartheid-era
South Africa in May 1981 led to boycotts of Irish athletes in other codes, and was not supported by the Irish government. Several prominent players refused to participate in the tour, while others were refused leave by their employers for the tour. In 1982, Ireland, led by out-half
Ollie Campbell, won the Five Nations and their first Triple Crown in 33 years. Three years later in 1985, Ireland won the Five Nations and the Triple Crown again. It was Ireland's last silverware until 2004. Kiernan retired as coach in 1983.
Willie John McBride was appointed to succeed him, until he was dismissed in July 1984. He was succeeded by
Mick Doyle, who led them a championship and
Triple Crown in the
1985 Five Nations. Ireland scored 10 tries against
Romania in a 60–0 win on 1 November 1986, the biggest win by a Tier One country in international rugby at the time. At the inaugural
1987 Rugby World Cup, victories over Tonga and Canada saw Ireland through to the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 33–15 by joint hosts Australia. Ireland failed to win the Five Nations in the whole of the 1990s, never finishing outside the bottom two. In 1991, they lost their
test series against Namibia. At the second Rugby World Cup in 1991, after wins over Japan and Zimbabwe, Ireland lost 15–24 at
Murrayfield. Ireland played the Wallabies at Lansdowne Road in the quarter-finals and appeared to be on the verge of a shock victory over Australia, when Michael Lynagh scored the winning try to clinch a 19–18 win for Australia. At the 1994 Five Nations Championship, Ireland beat England at Twickenham.
Professional era and new stadium: 1995–2013 At the 1995 World Cup, Ireland came through their group to make their third consecutive quarter-final appearance. France proved too strong, with Ireland going down 12–36 in the quarter-finals. The start of the professional era was disappointing for Ireland, who finished bottom of the Five Nations Championship three years in succession (1996, 1997 and 1998) and lost to Italy three times, at home (29–37) and abroad (12–22 and 22–37).
Warren Gatland took over as coach in 1998, but was unable to produce immediate success. The
1999 World Cup was staged primarily in Wales, though Ireland played all their pool games in Dublin. In a play-off, Ireland were beaten 28–24 by Argentina, marking the first time that Ireland failed to reach the quarter-finals. From this nadir, however, Irish rugby improved. Following a surprise triumph for Ulster Rugby in the
1999 Heineken Cup, the first side from outside France and England to win the competition, the Irish Rugby Football Union converted the four representative provincial sides into
de facto club sides, and the formation in 2001 of the
Celtic League (now called the
United Rugby Championship) provided Irish provincial sides with regular competitive rugby. The move to provincial professionalism was a significant success both on the field and commercially, relying on strong provincial identities long recognised in Irish sport both inside and outside rugby union, and leading to significant club success domestically and on the European stage. The advent of the new Six Nations format coincided with this Irish resurgence. In 2000, Ireland defeated France in Paris for the first time in decades, inspired by a hat-trick from '
wunderkind'
Brian O'Driscoll, and in 2001, Ireland finished second overall.
Eddie O'Sullivan took over as coach in November 2001 after Warren Gatland was sacked. The
2003 Six Nations Championship saw Ireland lose to England in the Grand Slam decider at Lansdowne Road, ending a home unbeaten run that stretched to 10 tests since September 2002. winning the line-out against
Argentina in 2007 In the 2004 Six Nations, Ireland finished second overall and won the
Triple Crown. In the 2005
Six Nations, Ireland finished in third place. In the 2006 Six Nations, Ireland won the Triple Crown for the second time in three years. In the last autumn international at Lansdowne Road, Ireland beat Australia 21–6. With the rebuilding of
Lansdowne Road, a new venue was required.
Croke Park, home of the
Gaelic Athletic Association, hosted some games from 2007 to 2010. Ireland's
2008 Six Nations campaign included three losses. Eddie O'Sullivan resigned as Ireland coach and
Declan Kidney was appointed. lifts the
2009 Six Nations Grand slam trophy. Ireland won the
2009 Six Nations Championship and
Grand Slam, their first Six Nations win since 1985 and their first Grand Slam since 1948. After a draw against
Australia and victories against Fiji and
South Africa, Ireland ended 2009 unbeaten. In Ireland's final game of the
2010 Six Nations, and the last-ever game at
Croke Park, Ireland lost to Scotland 20–23 and failed to win the Triple Crown. Ireland began their
2010 Autumn Tests with a 21–23 loss to South Africa, the first international at the new
Aviva Stadium. In the
2011 Six Nations Championship, Ireland lost 22–25 to
France in the first Six Nations match to be played at the Aviva Stadium. During a 13–19 loss against
Wales, Ireland's Ronan O'Gara became the first Irishman, and only the fifth player, to score 1,000 points. In Ireland's 24–8 win against
England, Brian O'Driscoll scored his 25th try to set a new Six Nations record for tries scored. In their
2012 Six Nations Championship campaign Ireland finished third overall. Ireland's
2012 summer tour of New Zealand included a 22–19 loss, followed by a 60–0 thrashing, Ireland's heaviest ever defeat. . The
2013 Six Nations Championship saw Ireland finish with one win, three losses, and one draw, including their first home loss to England in 10 years; and their first ever loss to Italy in the Six Nations.
Joe Schmidt & Andy Farrell era: 2013–present The IRFU declined to extend
Declan Kidney's contract, and
Joe Schmidt was announced as the new Ireland coach. In their
2013 end-of-year rugby union tests, Ireland lost 22–24 to New Zealand, having led throughout the match. Ireland opened their
2014 Six Nations Championship with wins over Scotland and Wales. Ireland lost 10–13 to England. Ireland won their next match against Italy 46–7. Ireland beat France 22–20 in the final round to claim the Six Nations title. In November they defeated South Africa 29–15 and Australia 26–23 at Dublin. Ireland retained the
2015 Six Nations Championship, and became Six Nations Champions for the second year running on points difference. Following wins against Wales and Scotland during warm-up matches for the
2015 Rugby World Cup, Ireland briefly reached its highest-ever position of second in the World Rugby rankings. Ireland won its pool at the 2015 Rugby World Cup with a 24–9 victory over France, but lost in the quarter-finals to Argentina 20–43. In January 2016, having been sacked by England a month earlier,
Andy Farrell was appointed defence coach, replacing
Les Kiss. Entering the
2016 Six Nations competition with a squad depleted by injury, Ireland won two matches in the tournament (58–15 against Italy in Round 4, and 35–25 against Scotland in Round 5), and achieved a 16–16 draw against Wales. The team went on to win the first of their three-match
tour of South Africa 26–20, before losing the second and third tests 26–32 and 13–19. In autumn of 2016, Ireland defeated New Zealand for the first time ever on 5 November 2016 in
Chicago, by 40–29. It had taken a wait of 111 years for Ireland to finally beat New Zealand with the first match being played in 1905. This was New Zealand's only loss all year, and ended their record-breaking win streak of 18 test matches. Despite New Zealand winning the return fixture in Dublin the following week 21–9, Ireland moved up to fourth in the world rankings. Ireland finished second in the
2017 Six Nations Championship, behind defending champions England, who the Irish defeated in the final of round of the competition by 13–9, ending England's record-equalling run of 18 victories since 2015. They lost to Scotland 22–27 in Round 1 and Wales 9–22 in Round 4 during the same tournament. With many first-choice players selected to
tour New Zealand with the
British & Irish Lions, Ireland took a development squad into their summer games, which included a 55–19 win over the
USA, and a 2–0 test series victory against
Japan. In November 2017, Ireland moved to third in the world rankings following their biggest-ever win over South Africa, 38–3, and victories over Fiji and Argentina. Ireland won the
2018 Six Nations Championship with a Grand Slam, and moved up to second in the world rankings. A
2–1 series win over Australia in summer that year was followed by a second victory in two years against the world number one New Zealand, by 16–9 which cemented Ireland's number two ranking and most accumulated rating points (91.17) in their history. Following their success in the Six Nations, the Australia tour and the autumn internationals, Ireland were named 2018
World Rugby Team of the Year with Joe Schmidt named
World Rugby Coach of the Year. The
2019 Six Nations started with a defeat to England, by 20–32. After this, they beat Scotland, Italy and France, but ended with a loss against Grand Slam winners Wales, by 7–25. Ireland achieved some redress when they defeated Wales back-to-back, home and away, in the
2019 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches and subsequently reached number 1 in the
World Rugby Rankings for the first time, going in to the
2019 Rugby World Cup. The
2019 Rugby World Cup ended in disappointment for Ireland, who opened their campaign with a rousing 27–3 win over Scotland, but lost their next game, a shock 12–19 defeat to tournament hosts Japan. Ireland overcame their other pool opponents Russia (35–0) and Samoa (47–5) to reach the quarter-finals, but were knocked out by New Zealand, 46–14. The loss to the All Blacks was Ireland's seventh exit at the quarter-finals of a World Cup, having never reached a semi-final, and saw their place in the world rankings fall from 1st going into the tournament to 5th by its end. 2020 was Ireland's first Six Nations campaign under former defense coach Andy Farrell, who replaced Joe Schmidt after the World Cup. The Six Nations was interrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the disruption, Ireland had wins against Scotland (19–12) and Wales (24–14) before losing against England 12–24. Ireland's fourth-round game against Italy was delayed until October that year, with the Irish recording a 50–17 win, going on to a 27–35 defeat against France to finish the tournament in third place. In the subsequent
Autumn Nations Cup, Ireland defeated Wales (32–9) and Scotland (31–16) but were beaten by England, 7–18. Their performance in the game against Georgia, although a comfortable win on the scoreboard (23–10) was criticised for a perceived lack of spirit or tactical ingenuity. Ireland finished 2020 with their ranking unchanged, fifth in the world. The
2021 Six Nations took place again amidst the ongoing pandemic, with spectators still excluded. In this changed environment Ireland had an indifferent campaign, once again finishing 3rd with wins over Italy (48–10), Scotland (27–24) and England (32–18), after losing their opening two matches to France (13–15) and eventual champions Wales (16–21). Ireland achieved two victories in the
2021 July tests against Japan (39–31) and the United States (71–10). Ireland finished the season with a clean sweep in the Autumn Nations series, defeating Japan (60–5), New Zealand (29–20) and Argentina (53–7). Ireland opened their
2022 Six Nations campaign with an emphatic 29–7 victory over Wales, only to lose to France 30–24 the next week at the Stade De France. They then defeated an ill-disciplined Italy in Dublin 57–6 and got their biggest win over England at Twickenham since 1964 (15–32). On the final day of the tournament, Ireland had to win against Scotland and France had to lose against England in order for Ireland to win the Championship. Ireland won the Triple Crown on the final day of the tournament, beating Scotland 26–5 in Dublin, but failed to win the Championship after France beat England 25–13 in Saint-Denis. After losing the opening test match of the
2022 New Zealand tour, Ireland scored their first victory against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil on 9 July 2022, their fourth win over New Zealand. Three days later, they followed up their historic win with their first victory over the
Maori All Blacks in four attempts, beating the side 24–30 in Wellington. On 16 July 2022 Ireland became just the fifth touring side and first in the professional era to achieve a series win in New Zealand, beating the All Blacks 22–32 in Wellington for a 2–1 series victory. Following that victory Ireland officially became the world number one team for the second time in their history. On 18 March 2023, Ireland won the
Grand Slam for the fourth time in a 29–16 victory over England in Dublin. In September 2023, Ireland opened their
2023 Rugby World Cup campaign with their biggest ever win at a Rugby World Cup beating
Romania 82–8. Ireland subsequently won their matches against eventual champions South Africa and against Scotland 36–14 at the Stade de France. Despite their group stage success, Ireland still could not overcome the
quarter-final hurdle, losing 24–28 to New Zealand. This loss also ended the side's 17 consecutive Test victories, an Irish record. Having gained 19 table points this was Ireland's most successful group stage of a World Cup campaign. Ireland's 31–7 victory over Wales in the
2024 Six Nations tied England's record for the most consecutive Six Nations victories at 11 and also extended Ireland's longest run of home wins to 18. Ireland became back-to-back Six Nations outright champions for only the third time in their history, defeating Scotland 17–13 at home on 16 March 2024. Ireland finished third in the
2025 Six Nations under Simon Easterby, despite winning four matches, only losing at home to France, 27–42. It was announced after the campaign that
Paul O'Connell would take over as interim head coach from Simon Easterby who would be coaching with the
British & Irish Lions. The first British and Irish Lions test against Australia featured a record eight Irish players in the starting 15 and 11 in the matchday 23. During Ireland's 2025 summer tour they beat
Portugal 7–106, breaking Ireland's record for tries in a match and largest winning margin, which was previously their 3–83 win over the
United States. They achieved this despite 17 of their players being on
tour with the British and Irish Lions. During the match
Jack Crowley also broke the Irish record for most conversions in a single match with twelve. ==Playing strip==