26 Apr 2025
Why is There No Rugby in Germany? What Really Stands in the Way
- Garrett Thorburn
- 26 Apr 2025
- rugby fixtures
The first thing that jumps out if you live in Germany: try asking a neighbor about last weekend's rugby result, and you’ll probably get a confused smile. It’s not that Germans hate rugby—they just never really had the chance to fall in love with it.
Unlike in England or France, where rugby is practically part of school life, most German kids grow up hardly knowing the rules. Soccer overshadows everything. Stadiums for football games are packed, broadcasts fill up TV schedules, and even local newspapers barely give rugby a mention. If you’re a rugby fan moving to Germany, you quickly realize it takes serious digging just to find out when or where a match is happening.
- How Rugby Got Sidelined in Germany
- Football’s Huge Shadow
- Missing From German Schools
- Media Blackout and Visibility Problems
- Trying to Build a Local Scene
- Tips for Rugby Fans Living in Germany
How Rugby Got Sidelined in Germany
It’s wild to think, but rugby actually showed up in Germany way back in the late 1800s. The British brought the sport over, and for a hot minute, there were even a handful of clubs in cities like Heidelberg and Hanover. But here’s the thing: rugby never became more than a blip on the German sports radar.
You might wonder—why did rugby in Germany stall out while it took off in places like France? Part of it comes down to timing. In the early 1900s, football (soccer) started getting real traction; the German Football Association (DFB) formed in 1900, and from there, soccer just exploded in popularity. Rugby, meanwhile, kept getting the short end of the stick when it came to funding, attention, and school programs.
World War II didn’t help. After the war, Germany’s focus was on rebuilding and soccer became the main way people connected and celebrated. Even today, the German Rugby Federation is a fraction of the size of the football association—rugby clubs are outnumbered by football clubs close to 100 to 1. Want numbers? As of 2022, there are around 14,000 registered rugby players in Germany compared to about 7 million soccer players (yep, that’s not a typo).
| Sport | Registered Players (2022) |
|---|---|
| Soccer | 7,000,000 |
| Rugby | 14,000 |
If you ask older German sports fans about German rugby, you’ll often hear that it was always seen as a foreign thing. The rules felt complicated, the hits looked rough, and nobody’s family played it—unlike football, which every German kid grew up with in the backyard.
In short, rugby in Germany never went beyond a niche group, squeezed out by history, war, and the unstoppable rise of soccer. Some clubs kept the flame alive, but for most folks in Germany, rugby just passed them by without leaving a mark.
Football’s Huge Shadow
Try talking about rugby in Germany, and you’ll run into the same roadblock every time: football is everywhere. This country is crazy about soccer—whether it’s the Bundesliga, packed stadiums, or endless tables of FC Bayern stats on the news, everyone has strong opinions about the game. It’s not just a sport here. It’s almost a second religion.
Clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund aren’t just popular—they’re embedded in the culture. Over 25,000 football clubs exist across Germany, which is massive compared to the handful of official rugby teams. Numbers really don’t lie. Check out how lopsided this looks:
| Sport | Registered Clubs | Registered Players |
|---|---|---|
| Football | 25,000+ | Over 7 million |
| Rugby | Around 120 | About 15,000 |
While you can find a football match almost anywhere and any time, most Germans only see rugby on TV during the Rugby World Cup—if they bother tuning in. When the nation’s main sports focus, funding, and field space all point toward soccer, everything else gets pushed out. That usually leaves fans of German rugby hunting for rare bars showing a match or making weekend road trips to see one of the few local games.
Plus, try getting sponsorship when companies are fighting for football slots that promise millions of eyes. Even big sponsors like Adidas and Volkswagen barely touch rugby. No wonder the rugby fixture list is almost invisible to the average German sports fan.
Missing From German Schools
It’s tough for any sport to thrive if kids don’t grow up playing it together. That’s exactly the problem with rugby in Germany. Ask most German students about their school sports, and you’ll hear about football, handball, or maybe athletics. Rugby? It’s almost never on the timetable.
School sports programs are where sports like football get their jumpstart in Germany. The state and local sports clubs (Vereine) work closely with schools. Kids start with football at age five or six, going straight into youth teams where they train most afternoons. Rugby doesn’t get that kind of early, organized boost. The German Rugby Federation (DRV) does have youth initiatives, but these are small and almost invisible in public schools.
Here’s a quick reality check. Out of thousands of public schools in Germany, only a handful offer rugby as a regular part of PE classes. As of 2024, fewer than 300 schools in a country of over 40,000 have any contact with organized rugby activities. Compare that to football, which gets supported in pretty much every school and by hundreds of local clubs.
| Sport | Schools Offering | Popularity |
|---|---|---|
| Football (Soccer) | Almost all | Very high |
| Handball | Widespread | High |
| Rugby | ~300 | Very low |
This early gap really matters. If you don’t pick up rugby in Germany while young, you miss out on those basic skills and the sense of belonging that keeps other sports so strong. By the time people hit their teens or twenties, switching sports is hard. Habits (and friendship groups) are set in stone.
If you’re in Germany and want to get your kids into rugby, you need to do some research. Look for expat groups or the few clubs in bigger cities like Heidelberg or Hanover. Otherwise, rugby isn’t just missing from school—it's missing from the whole childhood experience.
Media Blackout and Visibility Problems
One of the biggest reasons why rugby in Germany stays under the radar? It just doesn’t show up on most people’s screens. Open a sports section, scroll through TV channels, or check out the trending clips online—it’s almost impossible to catch a live or even a highlight of a rugby match here.
The main sports broadcasters—ARD, ZDF, and Sky—barely mention rugby outside of maybe a World Cup final. For context, in 2024, ARD listed over 200 football games on its sport schedule, but not a single domestic rugby fixture made the cut. That means most Germans haven’t ever stumbled onto a rugby match by chance, the way they do with American football or handball.
When German clubs or the national team actually manage to make it into European competitions, coverage is limited to occasional streaming on niche pay-per-view platforms. You have to really go hunting for it. Sometimes, rugby matches get aired on Sport1 or Eurosport, but the viewership numbers are tiny—often below 5,000 people per match, according to 2023 Nielsen stats.
| Sport | Average TV Viewers (2023) | Prime-Time Broadcasts |
|---|---|---|
| Football (Soccer) | 3,200,000 | Weekly |
| Handball | 900,000 | Monthly |
| Rugby | 4,000 | Yearly |
This lack of screen time creates a loop: sponsors aren’t interested because nobody’s watching, and nobody’s watching because it never gets promoted. Even big events like the Rugby World Cup barely get mentioned in German mainstream media—just a blip compared to the Bundesliga.
If you are a rugby fan in Germany, you get used to watching matches online in English, joining Telegram groups for fixture info, or following clubs’ social media just to keep up. Finding a local pub that will even put on a rugby game can feel like winning the lottery.
Trying to Build a Local Scene
You’d think in a country as massive as Germany, there’d be plenty of people fired up about rugby in Germany. Truth is, building a proper rugby scene here has been slow, even though the German Rugby Federation (DRV) is over 120 years old. Clubs exist, but they’re scattered and mostly run on a volunteer basis. And while Berlin, Frankfurt, and Heidelberg have some half-decent teams, most cities don’t even have a club, let alone a regular crowd.
Here’s the reality: even the Bundesliga, which is supposed to be the top flight for German rugby, runs in two separate divisions (North/East and South/West). Most teams are amateur, and a full stadium is anything over 500 people. Compare that to the absolute madness at a fourth-division soccer game and it’s night and day.
Rugby isn’t offered at most schools, so there’s no big base of young kids feeding the clubs. That means many players actually start in college, or after seeing a game abroad. Clubs spend a ton of energy just recruiting people who’ve never touched a rugby ball before.
Still, there are some decent grassroots efforts. For example, the Frankfurt 1880 club is probably Germany’s biggest success story—they even made it to European competitions. But even for them, everything depends on a handful of local sponsors, a couple dedicated coaches, and a lot of unpaid hours from club members. Here’s a quick look at club stats from 2024:
| City | Number of Clubs | Average Attendance |
|---|---|---|
| Heidelberg | 5 | 400 |
| Frankfurt | 3 | 350 |
| Berlin | 4 | 350 |
| Munich | 2 | 200 |
If you want to support rugby fixtures in Germany, your best bet is to check out local club websites, join a Facebook group, or even just show up at the field and ask around. Some Bundesliga games stream on YouTube, and a few bars in bigger cities put on Six Nations or World Cup matches. If you get involved, expect to become part of a tight-knit community. There may not be massive crowds, but you’ll find people excited to grow the sport—even if it means doing a little heavy-lifting themselves.
Tips for Rugby Fans Living in Germany
So you’re a big rugby in Germany fan but ended up living in a country where hardly anyone knows a scrum from a tackle. Don’t worry; it’s still possible to enjoy the game, find a few fellow fans, and maybe even get involved yourself.
First off, streaming services are your best friend. Major matches from the English Premiership, France’s Top 14, or international fixtures usually aren’t on regular German TV. But you can catch most of the action on services like DAZN, Sky Sports (sometimes accessible with a VPN), or the official World Rugby channel on YouTube for highlights. Ask round in expat Facebook groups; someone’s usually got the latest on coverage.
If you want to see German rugby up close, check out the Rugby-Bundesliga. It’s not on the same level as the Six Nations, but games in cities like Heidelberg, Hannover, and Berlin can surprise you. Some clubs, like Heidelberger RK or SC Frankfurt 1880, actually have a bit of atmosphere at their matches, especially on sunny weekends. Entry is cheap—often under €10, sometimes free—and a good way to meet other fans or players.
One challenge is language; most club communication is in German. But don’t let that put you off. German rugby clubs are famously welcoming to internationals. Even if you just show up and say hi in English, you’ll fit right in. Some clubs organize touch rugby or beginners’ sessions just for folks new to the sport or the country.
Here’s a quick list for rugby fixtures in Germany enthusiasts who want to stay connected:
- Follow Deutsche Rugby Verband (German Rugby Federation) on social media for news, results, and fixture lists.
- Use "Meetup" or "Internations" to find local rugby viewing groups, especially in bigger cities like Munich, Berlin, or Frankfurt.
- Consider playing yourself—clubs always need extra hands, whether you’re a pro or just looking to get some fitness in.
- Check Irish pubs or expat bars on game days; they often show live rugby and pull in a decent crowd.
- For major international games, look up big sports bars ahead of time (call or check their websites to see what’s on).
Ever wonder how many people are trying to watch or play? Have a look at this:
| Rugby Clubs | Estimated Registered Players | Major Cities with Clubs |
|---|---|---|
| ~120 | More than 12,000 | Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hannover, Munich |
Remember, the vibe is pretty casual compared to rugby hotspots like England or New Zealand, but you’ll be surprised how friendly people are and how keen they are to chat about the sport—especially if you bring a bit of expertise from abroad. Stay connected, get out there, and you’ll find your spot in the German rugby scene.
