Rugby was first played in the country in the 1960s, when Armenia was a republic within the
Soviet Union. Armenia had its own representative team within the USSR, although it was not considered to be a proper national side. Armenian clubs including Yerevan Dinamo RC and Yerevan Spartak RC played in the top division of
Soviet Championship and
Soviet Cup. The rugby teams were disbanded due to the effects of the
first Nagorno-Karabakh War and economic difficulties in Armenia during first years of independence in the early 1990s. Rugby in Armenia went into hibernation for almost a decade until the founding of the Rugby Federation of Armenia (RFA) in 2000. Gagik Panikian become the RFA president in 2002 and the RFA joined FIRA-AER (now
Rugby Europe) later that year. National teams for sevens and fifteen-a-side were soon formed to play in European competitions. As of 2012, there were three rugby clubs in Armenia: Ararat, Artashat, and Ureni. Rugby Europe suspended the Rugby Federation of Armenia due to inactivity in 2014. ==National teams==