Loughborough Sport Men’s Rugby Programme 23rd Sept

RUGBY

JAMES GALLAGHER PROGRAMME MANAGER

Welcome, we hope you’re all well and as excited as we are to see the rugby season officially get underway! With over 60 fixtures due to take place on campus across the season, Loughborough remains the hotbed of rugby that it has always been.

Preseason has been as gruelling as ever as the National 2 side and the BUCS Super Rugby side all prepare for their first competitive rugby coming at various points throughout September. We are planning on bringing you, our fans, and supporters, together with our players.

This season will be as exciting as ever. With a fantastic group of staff, volunteers and most importantly players leading the historic Loughborough rugby into another year, following the fantastic 22/23 season in which we won our first ever BUCS Super Rugby title. We hope to see as many of you as possible throughout the year. Fixture details are included in this edition.

Gally

17

IWAN BURGWIN 19

DARRAGH WALSH 20

DAN COOPER TR

ARCHIE MCKIBBAN TR

DAN HAMILTON-STRONG TR

MEET THE TEAM

KARL WARNER

NICKNAME: KARLOS

DOB: 11/07/2000

PLACE OF BIRTH: BELFAST

STUDYING: SCIENCE, COACHING AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

HOBBIES: SALMON FISHING OR GOING FOR HIKES.

HERO: BRIAN O’DRISCOLL

RUGBY AMBITION: GO PROFESSIONAL OR REPRESENT MY COUNTRY

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

SIS PITCHES

TODAYS OPPOSITION OLD REDS

Based in Brislington, a suburb of Bristol, Old Redcliffians were founded in 1918 by former pupils of Redcliffe Boys School (founded in 1571), who on returning from serving in World War One, helped set up the club. Initially the club played at the school playing fields on Daventry Road in Knowle. However, in 1968 when a new school was built on those premises, the club moved to the schools new playing field on Scotland Lane.

During the early 1980’s the club enjoyed a strong period, when as well as playing 6 senior sides on a Saturday, the first team played for

three seasons in the John Player Cup and had the pleasure of hosting London Scottish in the third round. The advent of league rugby saw the club play mainly in the Somerset or Western Counties leagues. However, a turnaround in the club's fortunes started in 2010 when they won the RFU Intermediate Cup at Twickenham and saw promotion to Southwest. The following season saw another promotion into National 3 for the first time. They were relegated after one season but bounced back the following season and have now reached National 2.

LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS RFC

LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS RFC STAFF

ANTHONY ALLEN Performance Coach

ALEX WHITE Performance coach

MARTIN WEBDALE Head Coach

JAMES PETERS Development Head Coach

JAMES GALLAGHER Rugby Programme Manager

MATT COOKE S&C Volunteer

EMMA LINCOLN Womens/Lightning Rugby Operations

ELLA BOND Mens Rugby Operations

BRAD JONES Nat 2 Head Coach

LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS RFC A BRIEF HISTORY

1984

Rex Hazeldine is appointed as Head Coach leading the side to a UAU title and victory in the Leicestershire Cup. A touring Australian Universities side was also defeated.

1976

1919

Loughborough College formed the original Rugby Union side in September 1919.

1930

Loughborough Colleges competed in their first Universities Athletic Union competition, beating Nottingham University 8-0 in their first match.

1939

Loughborough Colleges reached the UAU final for the first time,losing narrowly to Swansea.

1953

Loughborough Colleges won the UAU for the first time.

1962-68

These were spectacular years for Loughborough, winning every UAU title except 1965. Gerald Davies, John Mantle, Dave Rollit, John Taylor, Bev Risman and Colin MacFadyean, became world class players. John Robins became the first British and Irish Lions coach.

Middlesex 7s winners: 1959, 1964 1966, 1970 and 1976.

1996

Loughborough enter the leagues at the bottom of the RFU pyramid.

The Student’s Unions of the University of Technology and the Loughborough Colleges merged and the Loughborough Students Rugby Club was formed. The team won the UAU in 1977, 1978 and 1979, with the 1978–79 side captained by the young centre Clive Woodward.

1970

The legendary Jim Greenwood coaches the Colleges to victory in the Middlesex Sevens, and the first UAU final at Twickenham. This side was probably the strongest ever, with six future internationals, Louis Dick, David Cooke, Clive Rees, Fran Cotton, Steve Smith, and Dick Cowman.

1997

Loughborough wins over Cambridge and Oxford in consecutive weeks signals the changing balance of power in student rugby.

1998

Ian Smith is appointed as the first full-time Director of Rugby.

2003

The World Cup winning England team was coached by six Loughborough alumni: Clive Woodward, Dave Alred, Andy Robinson, Dave Reddin, Phil Larder and Simon Hardy.

2005

Winning BUCS in 2005 breaks our longest spell without a BUCS victory.

2006

Real Varsity Match v Bath. Floodlights Appeal provides campus venue for the first ever rugby ‘event’ and engages alumni leading to the Vice Presidents club. A 3000+ crowd watched Loughborough beat Bath.

2008

Director of Rugby Dave Morris leads the side to promotion into National League 2 North, making the team the first student side to take part in the National Leagues.

2009

The Dan James Memorial Match Loughborough 23 – 20 England U20 A magnificent achievement for Dave Morris’ team and a suitably characterful performance through which to remember Dan.

2012

Loughborough v The Barbarians. A huge match to mark the opening of the Loughborough Stadium. Andy Robinson’s Barbarian side win 40– 7. Loughborough promoted into National League 1.

2016

Fiji win the first Olympic 7s competition coached by Loughborough alumni Ben Ryan, defeating Team GB in the process and fellow Loughborough alumni Phil Burgess.

2017

Loughborough Lightning enter the Tyrrells Premier 15s league.