Rugby union in Martinique Rugby union in Martinique Rugby union in Martinique is a minor, but growing sport. The Comité Territorial de Rugby de la Martinique is a committee under the umbrella of the French Rugby Federation which is the governing body for rugby union within French Guiana. The committee is not affiliated to the IRB in its own right, but it is affiliated to NACRA, (formerly NAWIRA), which is the regional governing body for North America and the Caribbean. Rugby was introduced to Martinique by the French who colonised the area. More talented players tend to leave for Metropolitan France. There have been
Martinique Spain had little interest in the territory. On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, landed in the harbor of St. Pierre with 150 French settlers after being driven off St. Kitts by the English. D'Esnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French "Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique" (Company of the American Islands), and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre (now St. Pierre). D'Esnambuc died in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who in 1637, became governor