Finland national rugby union team

Finland

Union	Suomen Rugbyliitto
Head coach	Alastair Davies
Captain	Jussi Viljanen
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	78 (as of 29 January 2024)
Highest	71 (2023)
Lowest	82 (2022)
First international
Finland 0 – 60 Switzerland  (1982-05-22)
Biggest win
Finland 55 – 5 Estonia  (2010-10-02)
Biggest defeat
Denmark 100 – 0 Finland  (1987-10-10)

The Finland national rugby union team represents Finland in men's international rugby union. The national side are ranked 71st in the world, as of 24 April 2023.^[1]

History

Finland played their first ever rugby international in 1982 against Switzerland, which they lost. Finland went on to win their first international in 1991, defeating Norway 18 points to 3

They played Monaco in 2002. Finland's attempt to qualify for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France began in Round 1 of the European tournaments. They faced Bulgaria in a two match series as part of the Round 1 group to determine which nation would advance. Bulgaria won the first game 42 points to 3 in Helsinki and won the second leg 50 to 3 in Sofia to knock Finland out of the tournament.

Record

Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Norway national XV at test level up until 11 May 2024:

Against	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win percentage
Andorra	2	2	0	0	100%
Austria	1	1	0	0	100%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	6	2	3	1	33.33%
Bulgaria	9	1	8	0	11.11%
Cyprus	2	0	2	0	0%
Denmark	9	3	6	0	33.33%
Estonia	4	4	0	0	100%
Gibraltar	1	0	1	0	0%
Greece	8	5	3	0	62.5%
Hungary	1	0	1	0	0%
Israel	5	1	4	0	20%
Latvia	2	0	2	0	0%
Luxembourg	9	1	8	0	11.11%
Moldova	2	1	1	0	50%
Monaco	1	0	1	0	0%
Norway	18	7	11	0	38.89%
Slovenia	2	0	2	0	0%
Sweden	2	0	2	0	0%
Switzerland	1	0	1	0	0%
Turkey	2	1	1	0	50%
Total	87	29	57	1	33.33%

Current squad

Current line-up for the 2023-24 Rugby Europe Conference.

• Coach: Alastair Davies

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

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Tapio Lahtinen	Prop		6	Jyväskylä R.F.C.
Ossi Aro	Hooker		19	Tampere R.F.C.
Chris Denholm	Prop		17	Helsinki RC
Akseli Peltoniemi	Lock		14	Old Town Shamrocks
Aaro Katainen	Lock		30	Jyväskylä R.F.C.
Kosti Eskola	Flanker		16	Warriors RC
Matti Keränen	Flanker		30	Old Town Shamrocks
John Poole	Number 8		4	Saimaa Sharks/Helsinki RC
Saxby Young	Scrum-half		5	Helsinki RC
Thomas Finell	Fly-half		64	Warriors RC
Samu-Petteri Pääkkö	Wing		20	Old Town Shamrocks
Jussi Viljanen (c)	Centre		32	Tampere R.F.C.
Kim Ali-keskikylä	Centre			Turku Eagles
Antti Haapanen	Wing		0	Helsinki RC
Philip Sleath	Fullback		9	Turku Eagles
Paulo Pannuzzo	Hooker		0	Helsinki RC
Olli Räsänen	Prop			Jyväskylä R.F.C./Tampere R.F.C.
Olli Palosuo	Prop		0	Helsinki RC
Juho Kiljain	Lock		3	Jyväskylä R.F.C.
Jedidiah Patton	Back row		1	Turku Eagles
James Edwards	Fly-half		0	Tampere R.F.C.
Timo McIntyre	Wing		0	Tampere R.F.C.
Jack Crabtree	Fullback		1	Warriors RC

References

External links

• [1] Archived 24 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine on RugbyEurope.eu
• [2] Rugby Finland
• Finland Archived 15 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine on RugbyData.com

This page was last edited on 11 May 2024, at 15:15