Maccabi Tel Aviv Rugby Club (Hebrew: מועדון רוגבי מכבי תל אביב) is a rugby union club in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded in 1973 as ASA Tel Aviv. As of August 2026, it has two men's teams, three women's teams and a youth section, and many players in Israel's national teams come from the club. Its women's team plays as the Amazons.
History
Dave Kaplan founded the rugby club ASA Tel Aviv in 1973. The team trained and played at the pitch of the Tel Aviv University sports centre. The club has also used the name ASA "Yaron" Tel Aviv Rugby Club. Tel Aviv were the first national champions in Israeli history, in 1974/75. In 2016 the club played its home matches at the Sportech rugby field.
In February 2015 ASA Tel Aviv won the 2014–15 national championship, its second in a row, beating Yizreel 11–8 in the final at Sportech. By the union's count, Tel Aviv won 14 championships up to 2018/19, seven of them since 2002; since that season only Tel Aviv and Yizrael have won the title.
After about 50 years with the ASA sports association, the club moved to the Maccabi Tel Aviv sports association. Its colours changed from orange to yellow and blue, and it kept all of its facilities and training slots. At the time Tel Aviv was one of the strongest clubs in the league: in the previous season the women had won the championship and the men had finished as runners-up. In 2024/25 the men were third in the league table with 26 points and lost the final 19–26 to Yizrael Gilboa on 1 March 2025. The women's team, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Amazons, won the 2024/25 national championship and topped the women's sevens table with 84 points.
In 2025/26 the men topped both the regular-season table, with 34 points, and the upper play-off table, with 39 points. In the teams' last meeting before the final, Tel Aviv beat Yizrael 27–16 in the Jezreel Valley. Maccabi Tel Aviv then beat Hapoel Yizreel 50–17 in the final at Hadar Yosef, completing a 13–0 season. By one count it was the club's 15th national title and its first since 2018–19. In the 2025/26 women's sevens table, after two events, Maccabi Tel Aviv were level on points with the leaders on 33.
Honours
- Israeli championship (men): 15 titles as of 2026, by one count, including the first national championship in 1974/75, 2014–15 (the second in a row), 2018/19 and 2025/26.
- Israeli national championship (women): 2024/25.
- Women's sevens title at the Wingate Institute: won 22–12 against Galil Elyon Bees in the final.
- Runners-up, Israeli championship (men): 2024/25.
By one count, the club has won dozens of championships over the years.
Ground
The club's address is the Tel Aviv University sports unit, 60 Haim Levanon Street, Tel Aviv. Home matches are played at the Sportek on Fridays or Saturdays. As of August 2026, the club trained at Hadar Yosef Stadium.
Teams and training
The youth section runs under-18, under-16, under-14 and under-12 groups. After the move to Maccabi, the club aimed to form a girls' team as well as a boys' team, and ultimately to create a boys' and girls' rugby academy.
IBEX Tel Aviv, by one count the first gay team in the Israeli rugby league, is part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv rugby family. IBEX calls itself the first inclusive LGBTQ+ men's rugby team in the Middle East, and it played as a separate team in the 2024/25 men's league table.
As of August 2026, training was on Sunday and Wednesday at 19:00 at the university, and on Friday at 15:00 at the Sportek. In another account, from the club, training was on Wednesday 19:30–21:00 and Friday 15:00–16:30 at Hadar Yosef Stadium. Confirm times with the club.