2000s (decade) organized in France. Bloodgate is the nickname for a rugby union scandal involving the English team Harlequins in their Heineken Cup match against the Irish side Leinster on 12 April 2009. It was so called because of the use of fake blood capsules, and has been seen by some as one of the biggest scandals in rugby since professionalisation in the mid-1990s, indeed even as an argument against the professional ethos. The name is a pun on Watergate. The New York Yankees won the first Major League Baseball World Series of the decade in 2000, as well as the last
Rugby union in Bulgaria Rugby union in Bulgaria Rugby union in Bulgaria is a minor but growing sport. Bulgaria is ranked 90th worldwide by the International Rugby Board (IRB) as of 8 October 2007. There are 3,026 Bulgarian rugby players. Rugby union in Bulgaria is governed by the Bulgarian Rugby Federation, which was formed in 1962. Bulgarian rugby is centred on the capital, Sofia. Although rugby was well organised in Bulgaria during the 1960s, the first international was not until 1976, when Bulgaria lost to Czechoslovakia. Bulgarian rugby has not traditionally enjoyed a high reputation. For example, in 1988, an anonymous French rugby official