Wales national rugby league team

Wales

Team information
Nickname	The Dragons
Governing body	Wales Rugby League
Region	Europe
Head coach	John Kear[1]
Captain	Elliot Kear[2]
Most caps	Rhys Williams (33)[3]
Top try-scorer	Rhys Williams (22)[3]
Top point-scorer	Iestyn Harris (165)[3]
IRL ranking	17th
Uniforms
First colours
Team results
First international
Wales 9–8 New Zealand  (Aberdare, Wales; 1 January 1908)
Biggest win
United States 4–92 Wales  (Philadelphia, United States; 11 June 1995)
Biggest defeat
England 74–0 Wales  (Doncaster, England; 10 October 2008)
World Cup
Appearances	5 (first time in 1975)
Best result	Semi-finals (1995, 2000)

The Wales national rugby league team represents Wales in representative rugby league football matches. Currently the team is ranked 17th in the IRL World Rankings. The team was run under the auspices of the Rugby Football League, but an independent body, Wales Rugby League, now runs the team from Cardiff. Six Welsh players have been entered into the Rugby Football League Hall of Fame.

As with other Welsh national sporting teams, Wales strip has been primarily red. However, in the World Cup campaign in 2000 they wore a shirt featuring the Welsh flag, adding a touch of green and white. The team is known as "The Dragons" and so the team's logo on the shirt is a red dragon.

The team date back to 1907, making them the third oldest national side after England and New Zealand, and it was a touring New Zealand side that Wales first played against in 1908, winning 9–8 at Aberdare. Since then, Wales have regularly played England, since 1935 France, as well as welcomed the touring Australia and New Zealand teams, although they rarely toured themselves, not playing a match in the Southern Hemisphere until 1975. For 26 years Wales competed against their two biggest rivals, England and France, in the European Nations Cup, winning the trophy four times.

Wales has also competed in the World Cup on five occasions, the first time being in 1975. In 1995 and 2000 they had their most successful tournaments to date, making the Semi-Finals on both occasions before being beaten by England and Australia respectively. Wales failed to qualify for the 2008 World Cup, being the second highest ranked side not to do so, having lost to Scotland on points difference over two matches. They then qualified for the 2013 World Cup but failed to win a game, including losing 32–16 to low ranked Italy in their opening game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

In recent seasons, Wales has taken massive strides under former player Iestyn Harris who had coached Wales to back to back European Cup successes, which culminated in a Four Nations appearance in 2011. In 2014 former England and France coach John Kear became the new head coach after Iestyn Harris left the post to concentrate on his new job as head coach at Salford Red Devils.