First Rugby team formed in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A group of expatriates and local lovers of Rugby have formed a team in the Kurdistan Region.

For over two years, foreigners and local people from the Kurdistan Region have been playing Rugby in Erbil’s Sami Abdulrahman Park in an attempt to establish an official Rugby team.

According to the leader of the team now after two years their dream has come true and they recently established the first Rugby team in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

Hiwa Faraidon, the supervisor of the team told Kurdistan24 that they now have a small team of locals and foreigners. “We have so far played one match in a tournament in Dubai, we will participate this year as well,” Faraidon added.

“We are playing as a Kurdish team… we are trying to improve this team and introduce it to more people, hoping to establish an academy for this sport and let Kurdish youth learn Rugby,” Faraidon added.

Locke Young, a Scottish national, the manager of the team told Kurdistan24, “We play three times a week with ten different nationalities forming a team and we participate in various tournaments every year.”

Young says that they will participate in Dubai tournament holding the flag of Kurdistan.

Kevin Phillipe is a Rugby player from Kenya who has been living in the Kurdistan Region for the past three years.

 “I am happy to be here [in the Kurdistan Region], we play Rugby a lot in Kenya and continued it in Kurdistan Region," Philipe said.

Since they are the only Rugby teams in the Kurdistan Region and the rest of Iraq,  there is no official team or institution to represent them.

Reporting by Baxtiyar Goran and Darbaz Ahmed
Editing by Ava Homa