List of international rugby union players killed in World War I (original) (raw)

This is a list of international rugby union players who died serving in armed forces during the First World War. Most of these came from the British Commonwealth, but a number of French international rugby players were also killed. A number of major teams, whose nations were belligerents in World War I such as Japan, Canada, Italy, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa had not made their international debuts at this point in time, and the United States team had only been in existence for around two years prior to the war.Also, none of the Central Powers had true national rugby squads at this point although there had been rugby clubs in Germany since the late 19th century, and the German Rugby Federation is the oldest national rugby union in continental Europe. However, Germany did put forward a team for r