Welsh national rugby league team
| Association | Wales Rugby League | ||
| Trainer |
 John Kear
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| captain | Craig Kopczak | ||
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Most international matches Ian Watson (30) |
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Most Points Scored Iestyn Harris (165) |
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Most attempts scored by Rhys Williams (16) |
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First international 9-8 New Zealand (January 1, 1908)  |
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Biggest win 92-4 United States (June 11, 1995)  |
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Biggest defeat 0:74 England (10 October 2008) |
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World Championship participations: 4 Best results: semi-finals 1995, 2000 |
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The Welsh national rugby league team represents Wales internationally in the sport of rugby league . For a long time the team was overshadowed by the UK national team , for which the Welsh players played in the most important international competitions. However, since 1995 the parts of the United Kingdom ( England , Wales and Scotland ) have had their own national teams for all major tournaments. The Welsh team is also known by the nickname "The Dragons".
history
On January 1, 1908, Wales completed the first ever international match in the rugby league against the New Zealand national team in Aberdare and won 9: 8. In the following years they played almost exclusively against England , because this was the only country in the northern hemisphere besides Wales in which rugby league was played. However, the Dragons were rarely able to keep up in these duels, as the sport was not as widespread in Wales as it was in the motherland of rugby . His most successful phase went through the team in the 1930s, when it three times against England and France played out European Nations Cup could win.
In the first ten editions of the Rugby League World Cup , which was held for the first time in 1954 , Wales only competed with their own selection in 1975 and took a considerable third place ahead of New Zealand and France. In 1995 Wales reached the World Cup semi-finals and won the European Cup for the first time since 1939 . At the 2000 World Cup , the leap to the semi-finals was again successful, where after a strong performance they had to admit defeat to the powerful Australians . In 2008 , however , the Dragons failed in the qualification, in 2013 they did not make it through the preliminary round. In recent years the Welsh are no longer one of the top nations in rugby league. In 2015, however, surprisingly the seventh European Cup title was won .