Rugby has been firmly established in The Bahamas since the 1930's and
40's when the local teams were called the Reds and the Blues.
The 1950's saw the emergence of the Sea Scouts who carried the rugby flag right up until the 1960's when, in 1963, the Buccaneers Rugby Club was formed in Nassau, soon followed by Freeport Rugby Club in Grand Bahama.
Since the 1960's, there have always been 4-clubs in The Bahamas although
many of them are no longer in existence: the Arawaks, Bootleggers,
T-Bird Flyers and Waterloo all came and eventually went the way of the Dodo. The clubs that currently make up the Bahamas Rugby Football Union
are Baillou, Buccaneers, Cuckoos and Freeport with Cuckoos being the most recently formed club in 1997.
IFrom the 1960's to early 1980's the clubs were heavily populated by ex-pats from the UK who were in The Bahamas on short term contracts usually as teachers or in the financial services sector. A few local Bahamians picked up the game by chance but they were in the minority.
The regular flow of ex-pats injected fresh blood into the rugby community and introduced new ideas and modern standards that were passed on to an otherwise isolated rugby community. The Bahamas also received regular Navy ships and touring teams each Easter from the UK which provided a much needed break from the limited domestic competition.
With the advent of structured league rugby in the UK the touring teams dried up completely. This lack of regular touring teams was amplified by the government severely restricting the number of work permits to foreigners and the flow of ex-pats came to a grinding halt.
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