Rugby was brought to Brazil by the British in the late nineteenth century. The first recorded Brazilian club was founded in 1891, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1895 rugby was introduced in
São Paulo Athletic Club. The first recorded match took place in 1926 between São Paulo and Santos city representatives and matches between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states were played almost every year between the 1926 and 1963. In 1932 Brazil hosted the Junior Springboks, while in 1936 it was visited by the British and Irish Lions, in their way back from Argentina. It was in 1950 that the Brazilian national team was formed again and it debuted in the South American Rugby Championship in 1951. In 1964, São Paulo hosted for the first time the South American Championship and finished second to Argentina. It would be only in 2018 that such result would be bested. Between the late 1960s and early 1990s, Brazil disputed with Paraguay the 4th place in the South American Championship, always behind Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Until the 1970s, most players were of British and Argentine origins, but the sport started to have most Brazilian players from the 1970s. Brazil has also been visited by at least two French tours -
that of 1974 and
that of 1985. In 1988, rugby was being played in only three of the Brazilian states. However, some progress had been made - in 1963, it was recorded that 95% of Brazilian players were foreigners, and there were only four clubs; by 1988, 75% of Brazilian rugby players were native born, and there were thirty five clubs. ==National team==