India U20

Rugby Union in India dates back to a scratch match or two played in Calcutta and Madras during the visit of MS Galatea in 1871 during the British Raj. The first recorded match was played on Christmas Day 1872, at CFC Ground in Calcutta, it was played between England and a combined team of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In the early days the Indian clubs joined England's Rugby Football Union but due to the British Army regiments leaving, local interest in rugby dropped leading to Calcutta RFC disbanding in 1878, with the silver rupees representing the club's assets being melted down to become the Calcutta Cup that was presented to the RFU.

In 1970, an All-India Rugby Football Union was founded and sent a representative team, made of half-Europeans and half-Indians, on a tour of Ceylon. Despite this, by the 1990s, the only two recognised rugby clubs in India were Bombay Gymkhana and Calcutta Cricket and Football Club. In 1998 the India Rugby Football Union was founded and in 1999 the IFRU gained association from the International Rugby Board. For most of the 2000s, they were reliant on overseas players with Indian ancestry. In March 2019, former South African player Naas Botha became coach of national team. He accepted the job for short term. In 2022, the India Rugby President, Rahul Bose announced plans to introduce payments to India national rugby team players.

Rugby India (RI) organised the Asian Rugby under 18 tournament in 2018 at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. In the tournament 14 nations participated and India finished on 4th position.