Brazil national rugby union team

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

Brazil

Nickname	Tupis
Emblem	Tupí chief
Union	Confederação Brasileira de Rugby (CBR)
Head coach	Emiliano Caffera
Captain	Felipe Sancery
Top scorer	Josh Reeves (156)
Top try scorer	Felipe Sancery (11)
Home stadium	Pacaembu Stadium
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	27 (as of 16 January 2023)
Highest	24 (2019)
Lowest	45 (2015)
First international
Uruguay 8−6 Brazil (9 September 1950)
Biggest win
Costa Rica 0−95 Brazil (10 October 2006)
Biggest defeat
Argentina 114−3 Brazil (10 October 1992) Argentina 111−0 Brazil (5 May 2012)
World Cup
Appearances	0
Website	www.brasilrugby.com.br

The Brazil national rugby union team, nicknamed Tupis, is controlled by the Brazilian Rugby Confederation. Brazil is one of the founding unions of CONSUR (now Sudamérica Rugby) and played in the inaugural South American tournament. Brazil has not qualified for a Rugby World Cup, but participated in the first edition of rugby 7s in the Olympics. Brazil currently ranks 4th in South America (behind Argentina, Uruguay and Chile) and 6th in the Americas region.

Rugby union in Brazil has a long history, dating back to the late 19th century when British immigrants brought the game to Brazil's urban ports. Despite Brazil's success in association football, Brazil has historically been one of the weakest teams of the Americas, having less success than that of Argentina or Uruguay.

In the 21st century, efforts were made to revitalize the sport in Brazil. With rugby sevens being added to the Olympic calendar, Brazil was invited to the World Rugby Sevens Series, showing improvement in both the men's and women's series. In 2016, a meeting with the unions of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States and Uruguay established the Americas Rugby Championship, meant to mirror the Six Nations and The Rugby Championship, and give consistent tests to the top teams in the region. After 3 close games, two of which Brazil came close to victory, Brazil beat the USA Eagles, 24–23, their first victory in the championship, as well as over the United States and a Tier Two nation. Brazil later went to have its first victories over Belgium and Portugal, marking the first time the team beat any European side and, later, a historical win against Argentina XV. This latter game, along with two wins against Chile and Colombia, secured Brazil its first South American Rugby Championship title, in 2018.

History

Beginnings: 19th Century to 1949

The very first instance of rugby being played in Brazil dates back to the late 19th century. British immigrants arriving in Brazil brought the game to various port cities in Brazil. These immigrants set up various athletic clubs which doubled with association football. The first recorded instance of a rugby game being played in Brazil was 1891, played by the São Paulo Athletic Club, under the auspices of Charles William Miller. Future efforts to promote the game were then taken on by Augusto Shaw, after Miller began to devote himself exclusively to football.

During the 1920s and 1930s, rugby began to flourish somewhat in Brazil, although it did not enjoy the widespread exposure as football. For the most part, rugby was primarily restricted to those who had British descent, or with some other connection to Britain. In 1926, a proper domestic competition was established. By 1932, a national side had formed; Brazil played its first ever national game against South Africa XV, losing by an unknown margin. The sport suffered a setback when an attempt to get it recognized as a national sport was denied, since rugby was limited to only four states than the required five. World War II suspended operations from 1941 to 1946, as was the case in many countries.

1950s to 1990s

Brazil participated in the first ever South American Rugby Championship, but lost all three of their fixtures. They were shut out 68 and 72 to zero against Chile and Argentina respectively, while Brazil played a closer game against Uruguay, losing 10 – 17. During the 1950s, organization of rugby in Brazil was sporadic; there was no official high governing union at the time, and the national side was only organized by Jimmy Macintyre, who ran the SPAC. Brazil would not play another test until 1961. The modern day Brazilian Rugby Confederation (CBRu) was founded in 1963, in order to govern the game more efficiently in the country. The first president of the CBRu was Harry Donovan. In 1964, Brazil finished runner-up in the South American Rugby Championship, tying Chile 16–16 and defeating Uruguay 15–8.

In the 1970s the better structure of rugby allowed the game to be introduced to Brazilians outside of the British-descended community. Brazil experienced somewhat of an expansion in rugby; the game was introduced to universities throughout the country, and Brazil was becoming a destination for rugby tours. In 1974, Brazil played a test match against France, losing by a margin of 7–99. For the rest of the decade Brazil played against its South American neighbors; Brazil frequently beat minnows Paraguay during this period.

In 1985, France toured Brazil again, but this time Brazil played much more valiantly, losing by a score of 6–41. Brazil is a charter member of CONSUR (now Sudámerica Rugby), founded in 1989. Despite this, Brazil did not officially join the IRB until 1995, and did not participate in qualifying tournaments until then. However, their first fixture in the qualifiers was a disaster; Brazil was humiliated by Trinidad and Tobago by a score of 41–0, swiftly ending their campaign.

2000s: the new century

Brazil began the 2000s with much more success. In 2000, Brazil easily won the 2000 edition of the SARC; they repeated this in 2001, topping the group of Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela. Brazil advanced to the next round of qualifying, disposing of Trinidad and Tobago; Brazil would go on to lose their final games, but Brazil was finally starting to close the gap. Throughout the 2000s, Brazil began winning more of its games, and in 2008, finally broke through; Brazil beat Paraguay to finally advance to the top flight of the SARC, their first time there since 1989. Brazil further repeated this by beating Paraguay again in 2009.

In 2012, the New York Times reported that rugby was Brazil's second fastest growing sport, behind MMA. This is partly due to World Rugby re-investing in Brazil due to the reinstatement of rugby in the 2016 Olympics. Since then, Brazil has been invited to the World Rugby Sevens Series, allowing Brazil to improve against higher competition.

In 2014, Brazil recorded its first-ever victory over Chile, defeating the Condores 24 to 16. Since initiatives were taken in 2009, the character of rugby has changed in Brazil; the registration numbers have risen, and the sport has successfully formed sponsorships with companies such as Bradesco, many of whom see Brazilian rugby to be profitable in the future.

In 2015, Brazil played two tests against the national team of Germany, one held in Pacaembu Stadium; these performances attracted 10,000 spectators, being one of the highest attendances for rugby in Brazil. Brazil's improved form showed in 2016 in the first edition of the Americas Rugby Championship, where Brazil was on the verge of historic victories against Chile and Uruguay, but could not hold on. After scoring 25 points in their first ever fixture versus Canada, Brazil went on to upset the United States 24–23 in Pacaembu; Brazil proceeded to finish off the tournament losing 7–41 to Argentina, scoring their first try against Argentina in decades.

For the 2016 South American Rugby Championship "A", RedeTV!, one of Brazil's major TV networks, will air Brazil's games live. Brazil played Uruguay at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, one of the largest stadiums to ever host a rugby game in Brazil. Brazil tied 20–20 against Chile, further signaling their rise to the top in South America. To cap off the tournament, Brazil beat Paraguay 32–21, finishing in third place only behind Chile on points difference.

Brazil improved in the 2017 edition of the ARC, beating Chile convincingly 17 to 3, before notching their first win in only their second meeting against Canada in Pacaembu, by the score of 24 to 23. After these victories, Brazil rose to 30th, their first time in the top 30 of the World Rugby Rankings since 2009. On November 18, 2017, Brazil won on European soil for the first time in history, defeating Belgium and Portugal, further showing their progress in the 2010s. Brazil's progress continued as they beat Chile on their home soil for the first time in history, and later in the year, in the reformed 2018 South American Rugby Championship, defeated Argentina XV, marking their first-ever victory over an Argentinean side. Brazil would go onto defeat Colombia and was crowned South American champions for the first time in their history.

Uniforms

Traditionally, the rugby team of Brazil has worn a strip of a yellow top and green shorts while the away strip consists of a green top and white shorts. The current provider of the kit is local based Topper. In 2015, the shorts were changed to blue, to be consistent with that of Brazil's football team; this included a presentation involving the Tupí tribe, whom the team is nicknamed after. The current shirt sponsor of Brazil is Bradesco.

Nickname

For some time, Brazilian national rugby union side was unofficially associated with Walt Disney's character Zé Carioca. Sometime later, CBRu, still known as Associação Brasileira de Rugby, or simply ABR, chose Vitória Régia as its official emblem and nickname. However, this nickname was not adopted by fans.

In March 2012, CBRu announced Os Tupis as Brazil national rugby union team's official nickname, a reference to Tupi people, the main ethnic group of Brazilian indigenous people. The choice for an emblem started in 2010, when CBRu started receiving e-mails with several suggestions. The three finalists were Tupis, Sucuris (Anacondas) and Araras (Macaws). Fans voted on an Internet poll and chose Tupis with 47% (4,387 votes) of preference. According to CBRu's former president (from 2012-2016), Sami Arap, "The choice ratified the roots of Brazilian people. Tupi represents the essence of our country, referring to [our] strength, perseverance, loyalty and team spirit".

Tournament records

Rugby World Cup

World Cup record									World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Pts F	Pts A		P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Not invited								—
1991	did not enter								did not enter
1995
1999	did not qualify								1	0	0	1	0	41
2003									6	4	0	2	140	84
2007									5	3	0	2	179	108
2011									8	6	0	2	230	190
2015									5	1	0	4	85	164
2019									6	2	1	3	160	139
2023									3	1	0	2	55	59
Total	0/9								31	16	1	13	849	785

Americas Rugby Championship

Main article: Americas Rugby Championship

The Americas Rugby Championship was held in five of the seven years from 2009 to 2015, but Brazil did not participate. Brazil along with Chile has participated in an expanded six-country Americas Rugby Championship in 2016. In the 2016 ARC, 42nd ranked Brazil defeated the 16th ranked United States 24–23, their first win against the United States.

Tourney	Record	Pts Diff	Position	Wins
2016	1–4	−68	5th	United States (24–23)
2017	2–3	−116	4th	Chile (17–3); Canada (24–23)
2018	1–4	−96	5th	Chile (16–14)
2019	2–3	−65	4th	Chile (15–10); Canada (18–10)

South American Championship

Main article: South American Rugby Championship

Tourney	Host	Record	Pts Diff	Position	Wins	Draws	Losses
2009	Uruguay	1–2	−129	4th	Paraguay (36–21)	—	Uruguay (3–71), Chile (3–79)
2010	Chile	1–2	−34	4th	Paraguay (23–18)	—	Uruguay (10–26), Chile (8–31)
2011	Argentina	1–2	−3	4th	Paraguay (51–14)	—	Uruguay (18–39), Chile (6–25)
2012	Chile	0–3	−136	4th	—	—	Uruguay (15–27), Chile (6–19), Argentina (0–111)
2013	Uruguay	0–3	−150	4th	—	—	Chile (22–38), Uruguay (7–58), Argentina (0–83)
2014	No fixed host	1–2	−24	3rd	Chile (24–16)	—	Paraguay (24–31), Uruguay (9–34)
2015	No fixed host	0–3	−77	4th	—	—	Uruguay (9–48), Chile (3–32), Paraguay (11–17)
2016	No fixed host	1–1–1	−11	3rd	Paraguay (32–21)	Chile (20–20)	Uruguay (14–36)
2017	No fixed host	1–2	+32	3rd	Paraguay (57–6)	—	Uruguay (27–41), Chile (10–15)
2018	No fixed host	3–0	+81	1st	Chile (28–12), Argentina XV (36-33), Colombia (67-5)	—	—
2019	No fixed host	1–2	–25	4th	Paraguay (66–10)	—	Uruguay XV (19-38), Argentina XV (0-62)

Overall record

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Brazil national XV at test level up until 16 November 2024, updated after match with Hong Kong.

Men's World Rugby Rankings

Top 30 as of 25 November 2024

Rank	Change	Team	Points
1		South Africa	092.78
2		Ireland	090.78
3		New Zealand	090.36
4		France	088.51
5		Argentina	084.97
6		Scotland	083.34
7		England	082.31
8		Australia	081.52
9		Fiji	080.07
10		Italy	078.64
11		Wales	074.01
12		Georgia	073.85
13		Japan	072.95
14		Samoa	072.68
15		United States	070.02
16		Portugal	068.82
17	1	Uruguay	067.06
18	1	Spain	065.98
19		Tonga	065.46
20		Romania	063.01
21		Chile	061.72
22		Hong Kong	059.49
23		Canada	059.18
24		Netherlands	058.56
25		Russia	058.06
26		Namibia	057.87
27		Zimbabwe	057.16
28		Brazil	056.53
29		Belgium	056.51
30		Switzerland	056.04

Brazil's historical rankings

See or edit source data.

Source: World Rugby
Graph updated to 25 November 2024

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Argentina	14	0	14	0	0.00%	54	1,096	–1,042
Argentina XV	6	1	5	0	16.67%	98	298	–200
Barbarians	1	0	1	0	0.00%	22	47	−25
Belgium	2	2	0	0	100%	70	44	+26
Canada	6	3	3	0	50%	105	180	–75
Chile	32	5	25	2	15.63%	427	1,036	–609
Colombia	10	10	0	0	100%	491	47	+434
Costa Rica	1	1	0	0	100%	95	0	+95
France A	2	0	2	0	0.00%	13	140	–127
Georgia XV	1	1	0	0	100%	20	18	+2
Germany	5	0	5	0	0.00%	51	157	–106
Hong Kong	4	1	3	0	25%	68	111	–43
Kenya	2	0	2	0	0.00%	42	45	–3
Māori All Blacks	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	35	–32
Mexico	2	2	0	0	100%	126	19	+107
Oxford and Cambridge	2	0	2	0	0.00%	13	102	−89
Paraguay	31	20	11	0	64.52%	830	553	+277
Peru	9	9	0	0	100%	404	58	+346
Portugal	5	1	4	0	20%	65	173	–108
Romania	3	0	3	0	0.00%	47	100	–53
Spain	2	0	2	0	0.00%	24	89	–65
Trinidad and Tobago	5	4	1	0	80%	75	71	+4
United Arab Emirates	1	1	0	0	100%	66	3	+63
United States	6	1	5	0	16.67%	102	221	–119
USA Selects	1	1	0	0	100%	33	20	+13
Uruguay	30	3	27	0	10%	318	1,053	–735
Uruguay A	1	0	1	0	0.00%	12	28	–16
Venezuela	9	8	1	0	88.89%	258	95	+163
Zimbabwe	2	0	1	1	0%	44	48	–24
Total	196	74	119	3	37.76%	3,976	5,887	–1,911

Current squad

On 31 October, Brazil named a 28-player squad for their two-test series against Hong Kong.

Head Coach: Emiliano Caffera

• Caps Updated: 16 November 2024 (after second test v Hong Kong)

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Wilton Rebolo	Hooker	(1995-08-02) 2 August 1995	40	Cobras
Endy Willian	Hooker	(1995-05-26) 26 May 1995	15	Los Angeles RFC
Henrique Ferreira	Prop	(1999-12-10) 10 December 1999	9	Cobras
Levy Marinho	Prop	(1998-10-27) 27 October 1998	2	Cobras
João Marino	Prop	(2002-04-16) 16 April 2002	4	Cobras
Leonel Moreno	Prop	(1997-08-29) 29 August 1997	13	Lazio
Matheus Rocha	Prop	(1997-04-23) 23 April 1997	25	CDUL
Caíque Silva	Prop	(1993-11-21) 21 November 1993	33	Lannemezan
Matteo Dell’Acqua	Lock	(1991-06-13) 13 June 1991	12	Valorugby Emilia
Ben Donald	Lock	(1998-04-03) 3 April 1998	7	Cobras
Hélder Bryan Lúcio	Lock		1	Cobras
Gabriel Oliveira	Lock	(2001-10-29) 29 October 2001	9	Cobras
Gabriel Paganini	Lock	(1993-03-03) 3 March 1993	38	Cobras
Matheus Cláudio	Back row	(1998-06-08) 8 June 1998	18	Cobras
Adrio de Melo	Back row	(2001-03-21) 21 March 2001	17	Cobras
Cléber Dias	Back row	(1995-07-03) 3 July 1995	47	Cobras
Rafael Teixeira	Back row	(1999-09-19) 19 September 1999	5	Cobras
Felipe Gonçalves	Scrum-half	(1999-12-01) 1 December 1999	16	Cobras
Lucas Spago	Scrum-half	(2000-05-19) 19 May 2000	13	Cobras
João Amaral	Fly-half	(2004-03-05) 5 March 2004	7	Cobras
Moisés Duque	Fly-half	(1988-12-21) 21 December 1988	65	Académica
Nicolas Azevedo	Fly-half		1	Jacareí
Lorenzo Massari	Centre	(1998-01-11) 11 January 1998	18	Cobras
Victor Silva	Centre	(1998-02-10) 10 February 1998	4	Cobras
Robert Tenório	Centre	(1996-07-27) 27 July 1996	32	Cobras
Théo Bastardie	Wing		1	Vannes
Daniel Lima	Wing	(1998-01-01) 1 January 1998	19	Cobras
Lucas Tranquez	Fullback	(1994-03-12) 12 March 1994	53	Cobras

Honors

SAR Championship

Champions: 2018

Runners-up: 1964

SAR Championship "B"

Champions: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2022, 2023

Runners-up: 2003, 2004, 2005

Notable players

• In 2011 Lucas "Tanque" Duque and his brother Moisés Duque were given trials with professional teams in France.
• Since 2015 Luiz Vieira has been playing for the second team of the TOP14 team Oyonnax.

Media coverage

Before 2016, most of Brazil's games were aired through SporTV, a paid television network. In 2016, changes were made to Brazil's broadcasting; more commonly available RedeTV! would air games involving the South American Rugby Championship, while ESPN Brasil holds the rights to the Americas Rugby Championship.

See also

• Rugby union in Brazil
• Brazil national rugby sevens team
• Brazilian Rugby Confederation
• South American Rugby Championship
• Americas Rugby Championship
• Brazil U20

External links

• (in Portuguese) Confederação Brasileira de Rugby – Official Site
• Brazil Archived 2017-07-29 at the Wayback Machine on Rugbydata.com
• Portal do Rugby Brazilian rugby news
• RugbyMania.com.br Brazilian look at Rugby News (Portuguese)
• RugbySpirit.com.br Info on Brazilian Rugby (Portuguese)
• [1] rugby blog on Globo.com
• (in Spanish) [2]