Lithuania

Nickname(s)	Vytis (The Knights)
Emblem	Vytis (Knight Riding on a Horse)
Union	Lietuvos Regbio Federacija
Head coach	Gediminas Marcišauskas
Captain	Tautvydas Krasauskas
Most caps	Mindaugas Misevičius Laurynas Tipelis (45)
Top scorer	Kęstutis Marcišaukas (372)
Home stadium	Šiaulių Savivaldybės Stadionas
World Rugby ranking
Current	40 (as of 16 January 2023)
Highest	34 (2018, 2019)
Lowest	70 (2005)
First international
Germany 31-5 Lithuania  (Berlin, Germany; 1 May 1993)
Biggest win
Serbia 5-77 Lithuania  (Belgrade, Serbia; 24 April 2010)
Biggest defeat
Denmark 83-6 Lithuania  (Copenhagen, Denmark; 29 May 1999)
Website	regbis.lt

The Lithuania national rugby union team (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Nacionalinė Regbio Sąjungos Komanda) represents Lithuania in men's international rugby union competitions. Nicknamed The Knights (Vytis), is considered one of the relatively stronger tier 3 teams in European rugby and currently compete in the second division of the Rugby Europe International Championships in the Rugby Europe Trophy, a competition which is just below the Rugby Europe Championship where the top 6 countries in Europe (apart from the teams in the 6 nations) compete. They are yet to participate in any Rugby World Cup and play in black with a pattern involving the colours red, yellow and green (the colours of the Lithuanian flag).

History

Rugby was first introduced into Lithuania in 1961. However, as the country was a part of USSR, the national team could not be formed. After the collapse of the USSR, Lithuania could finally form their very own national team where they would start playing unofficial friendlies against Latvia, their traditional rivals as well as representative team from Kaliningrad before finally playing their first official game against Germany, in 1993 where they lost with the score 31-5.

After the reestablishment of independence in 1990, Lithuania's rugby authorities worked to gain international recognition after gaining continental recognition in 1991 by FIRA Europe (as it was known at the time) and by 1993, the national team were participating in the qualifying for the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Lithuania also participated in the 1992-1994 FIRA Trophy competition at the bottom of the pyramid but failed to win any of their games. Later on in 1996, Lithuania had achieved their first official victory against Luxembourg during the qualifying competition for the 1999 World Cup. Overall, the 1990s were a poor decade for the national team, yet it must be considered that they were a relatively new country, never mind the fact that Lithuania started playing test match rugby in 1993.

Up until 2006, Lithuania was lingering in the middle of the third division of the European Nations Cup. However, a 100 percent record in their 2006-2008 European Nations Cup Third Division campaign earned them promotion from Division 3B to Division 3A. This effort was followed by another perfect record in the 2008-2010 European Nations Cup Third Division and a further promotion to Division 2A. Moreover, victories over Israel and the Netherlands would take them to the semifinal round of the European qualification tournament for a spot in the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final Place Play-off. The rise in form of the national had thus resulted in an increase in the popularity of the sport in Lithuania.

During their 2008–10 European Nations Cup campaign, Lithuania was credited with setting a new record for consecutive Test wins in men's rugby. Their 77–5 away win over Serbia on April 24, 2010 was listed as their 18th straight, surpassing the previous record set by New Zealand in 1965–69 and by South Africa in 1997–98.^[1] This undefeated campaign, which could have led to a Lithuanian presence at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, ended in the 27–16 loss to Ukraine in the European qualifying semifinal. However, on later review, it was found that the first game in the 18-game sequence was in fact a loss, and as such are now credited with having held an equal record with South Africa and New Zealand (the record would later be broken by Cyprus in 2013).^[2]

Record

World Cup

World Cup record									World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A		P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Part of USSR: Not an independent country								Part of USSR: Not an independent country
1991	Part of USSR: Not an independent country								Part of USSR: Not an independent country
1995	did not qualify								2	0	0	2	11	38
1999									4	1	0	3	70	157
2003									5	2	1	2	127	89
2007									6	2	0	4	169	130
2011									10	9	0	1	239	83
2015									4	1	0	3	69	109
2019									4	3	0	1	93	47
2023									Automatically eliminated
Total	0/9	0	0	0	0	0	0		35	18	1	16	778	653

Overall

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Lithuania national XV at test level up until 1 April 2023:

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	% Won
Andorra	5	4	1	0	80%
Armenia	2	2	0	0	100%
Austria	4	3	1	0	75%
Belgium	2	0	3	0	0%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2	2	0	0	100%
Bulgaria	5	4	0	1	80%
Croatia	5	3	2	0	60%
Cyprus	2	2	0	0	100%
Czech Republic	2	1	1	0	50%
Denmark	2	0	2	0	0%
Germany	2	0	2	0	0%
Hungary	8	6	2	0	75%
Israel	5	5	0	0	100%
Latvia	12	7	5	0	58.33%
Luxembourg	6	4	2	0	66.67%
Malta	7	3	4	0	42.86%
Moldova	3	0	3	0	0%
Monaco	1	1	0	0	100%
Netherlands	5	1	4	0	25%
Norway	3	3	0	0	100%
Poland	2	0	2	0	0%
Portugal	1	0	1	0	0%
Serbia	2	2	0	0	100%
Serbia and Montenegro	1	0	1	0	0%
Slovenia	2	0	1	1	0%
Sweden	10	2	7	1	20%
Switzerland	8	4	4	0	50%
Ukraine	6	2	4	0	33.33%
Total	116	61	52	3	52.59%

Recent Matches

Matches
23 October 2021 14:00 EEST (UTC+03) (1 LBP) Lithuania  37–39  Ukraine Report Regbio stadionas, Šiauliai Attendance: 500 Referee: Ethan Glass (Switzerland)
30 October 2021 15:00 EEST (UTC+03) Lithuania  16–46  Germany (1 TBP) Report Regbio stadionas, Šiauliai Attendance: 450 Referee: Gert Visser (Netherlands)
13 November 2021 15:30 CET (UTC+01) Switzerland  20–28  Lithuania Report Centre Sportif de Colovray, Nyon Referee: Dan O'Connell (Germany)

Current squad

The following players are in the match day squad for the 2021–22 Rugby Europe Trophy game against Switzerland on 13th November 2021.^[3]

• Head Coach: Gediminas Marcišauskas

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Tautvydas Mažylis	Prop	(1984-06-16) 16 June 1984		Azuolas Kaunas
Tomas Zibolis	Hooker	(1981-10-06) 6 October 1981		BaltRex Šiauliai
Tautrimas Mažylis	Prop	(1984-08-16) 16 August 1984		Azuolas Kaunas
Povilas Jankauskas	Lock	(1999-08-18) 18 August 1999		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Mindaugas Kazlauskas	Lock	(1986-11-28) 28 November 1986		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Martynas Lianzbergas	Back row	(1989-11-28) 28 November 1989		BaltRex Šiauliai
Donatas Trumpickas	Back row	(1996-10-01) 1 October 1996		BaltRex Šiauliai
Paulius Strigūnas	Back row	(1987-11-28) 28 November 1987		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Tautvydas Krasauskas (c)	Scrum-half	(1995-09-08) 8 September 1995		Azuolas Kaunas
Eimantas Bagarauskas	Fly-half	(1987-08-16) 16 August 1987		Azuolas Kaunas
Jonas Mikalčius	Wing	(1994-01-15) 15 January 1994
Dovydas Taujanskas	Centre	(2000-01-01) 1 January 2000		RK Geležinis Vilkas
Vytaras Bloškys	Centre	(1991-08-30) 30 August 1991		BaltRex Šiauliai
Domantas Bagužis	Wing	(1997-04-17) 17 April 1997		Azuolas Kaunas
Donatas Vilimavičius	Fullback	(1993-09-11) 11 September 1993		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Povilas Jurgelionis	??	(2000-11-28) 28 November 2000		Azuolas Kaunas
Daivaras Jonaitis	??	(1999-06-04) 4 June 1999		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Tomas Mačiulis	??	(1998-03-18) 18 March 1998		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Zilvinas Kungys	??	(1998-11-28) 28 November 1998		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Tomas Bagdonas	??	(1994-08-16) 16 August 1994		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Kęstutis Marcišauskas	??	(1985-07-24) 24 July 1985		RK Vairas Šiauliai
Matas Miežys	??	(1992-11-28) 28 November 1992		BaltRex Šiauliai
Justinas Vasiliauskas	??	(1988-01-29) 29 January 1988		RK Vairas Šiauliai

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the squad within the last 12 months.

Player	Pos	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club	Latest call-up
Lukas Gylys	Prop			BaltRex Šiauliai	v. Germany, 30 October 2021
Naglis Dunčikas	Lock			Azuolas Kaunas	v. Germany, 30 October 2021
Airidas Savickas	Lock			RK Vairas Šiauliai	v. Ukraine, 23 October 2021
Domantas Tautkus	Back row	2 June 1993 (age 28)		Azuolas Kaunas	v. Germany, 30 October 2021
Deniss Aleksejevs	Back row			RK Geležinis Vilkas	v. Ukraine, 23 October 2021
Kęstutis Riskus	Back row			RK Vairas Šiauliai	v. Ukraine, 23 October 2021
Alanas Alasauskis	Centre			Azuolas Kaunas	v. Ukraine, 23 October 2021
Rokas Lipnickas				RK Vairas Šiauliai	v. Germany, 30 October 2021
Domas Malinauskas				Azuolas Kaunas	v. Ukraine, 23 October 2021

Current coaching staff

The current coaching staff of the Lithuanian national team:^[4]

Name	Nationality	Role
Austeja Minkeviciute	LTU	Manager
Gediminas Marcišauskas	LTU	Head coach
Zygimantas Radzius	LTU	Assistant coach
Dr Liutkus	LTU	Team doctor
Arūnas Auga	LTU	Physiotherapist
Mantvydas Tveraga	LTU	Water Carrier

Former coaches

Name	Years	Tests	Won	Drew	Lost	Win percentage
Simon Verbickas	2021	1	0	0	1	0%
Gediminas Marcišauskas	2021	2	1	0	1	50%

See also

• Rugby union in Lithuania
• Lietuvos Regbio Federacija
• Lithuania national rugby sevens team
• Lithuania women's national rugby sevens team
• Sport in Lithuania

References

External links

• Lietuvos Regbio Federacija - Official Site (in Lithuanian)