Gloucester RFC

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gloucester Rugby
Founded 1873
Location Gloucester, England
Ground Kingsholm Stadium
Capacity 12,500
Coach Dean Ryan
Captain Marco Bortolami
League Guinness Premiership
2006-07 1st
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Away colours
Official website
www.gloucesterrugbyclub.com

Gloucester Rugby is a professional English rugby union team. The club plays in the domestic Guinness Premiership. They also take part in the Anglo-Welsh EDF Energy Cup and the European Rugby Cup.

The team plays out of its own stadium, Kingsholm. The club has no official nickname but they are called the cherry and whites by supporters and the media. The club was formed in 1873 and are today one of the most famous rugby clubs in the country, if not Europe.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 1873-1981

A team was organised to play the College school, which was actually played on the ground of the current Kingsholm ]],The club was formed in 1873 after a meeting at the Spread Eagle Hotel. There were 11 games played during the club's 1876-77 season, the club winning 6, losing 2 and drawing 3. Gloucester had a successful run in the coming seasons, playing 15 games in both the 1877-78 and 1878-79 seasons, winning 10, losing 2 and drawing 3 both times. In the 1879-80 season Gloucester played 17 games and lost just two. The following season was less successful, winning six of their 13 fixtures. In the 1882-83 season the team won 11 of their 14 games. The club was playing more fixtures as the decade continued, contesting 20 games in the 1884-85 season, and up to 34 in the 1891-92 season.

Gloucester were suspended by the RFU for professionalism as a result of the club recruiting players: the "Shewell case". The club responded by adopting a more puritanical adherence to the amateur regulations, and were reinstated. However when the Northern clubs split from the RFU to form the Northern Rugby Union (later known as the Rugby Football League) a number of Gloucester players "went North".

The 1920-21 season became famous for Gloucester when Fredd Webb skippered the club to 23 matches unbeaten at home at Kingsholm, with only the United Services and Pontypool clubs being able to defeat them at home. Gloucester defeated Newport 12 to 9 in front of 8,000 spectators. The following season was infamous for the number of footballers that were sent from the field by officials, 14 for fighting, seven for arguing, six for language and one for foul play. Leicester actually cancelled their Gloucester fixture because of this. Around the mid 1920s the media began to refer to the club as the 'Red and Whites'.

[edit] 1972-1995

In 1972 Gloucester won the first ever National Knock-Out Competition. Having overcome Bath, Bristol, London Welsh and Coventry (all away from home) in earlier rounds, they beat Moseley in a Twickenham final that was marred by violence and the sending off of Moseley's Nigel Horton. In 1978 Gloucester won the first ever John Player Cup, defeating Leicester in another final noted for violent play both on and off the pitch at Twickenham.

By 1992/93 however it was a different story. The players called a crisis meeting with club coach Keith Richardson about the perceived lack of player rewards relative to other comparable clubs. A year later, club chairman Peter Ford restated the club's traditional anti-professionalism: "We play by the rules... whatever anybody else does, we'll stick by the rules. If they say we can't pay players, or offer them inducements or cars or flats... then we won't do it."

[edit] 1995-present

Professionalism finally came in 1995, but Gloucester was without a major investor, and lost ground in terms of player recruitment and revenue acquisition. But this did not prevent the club from transforming itself into a limited company.

At the start of the 2005 season, the club chairman Tom Walkinshaw made several changes to Gloucester Rugby. The name of the club itself was changed from 'Gloucester RFC', the logo was changed to a new design based on the Gloucester City coat of arms (This was mainly due to the fact that Gloucester Rugby had no ownership of this crest and as such could not prevent its use on unofficial merchandise), and the shirt was changed from the traditional red and white hoops to a mostly red shirt with white strips along the side.

Gloucester's re-vamping was not only through image, but through their style of playing as well. The team is now boasting one of the most exciting and adventurous young back-lines in Europe, along side a hugely promising pack.

As of the current 2006/2007 season, Gloucester has been tipped to become one of the four clubs to reach the semi finals of the Guinness Premiership, due to a victory over London Irish for the European Challenge Cup, and strong play against other teams in recent Premiership fixtures.

Gloucester are currently placed 3rd in the 2006/2007 Guinness Premiership table (Round 15 ) and have demonstrated their level of skill and vision in the Heineken Cup, against sides such as Leinster and Edinburgh.

[edit] Stadium

Gloucester play their homes matches at the Kingsholm Stadium.

The club left the Spa for Kingsholm when it bought an area of the Castle Grim Estate for £4,000 in 1891.

A main grandstand was erected in 1926 at a cost of £2,500, containing 1,750 seats. However six years later it would be destroyed by fire. There were plans proposed to increase the capacity of the stadium to 20,000, with seating for 7,000. It remained just that , a proposal, although the grandstand was replaced.

Gloucester opened the "sixpenny" stand later known as the Shed in 1891. Kingsholm's capacity was further increased to 20,000 in the 1930s when a grandstand was added to the stadium.

Like the clubs of the Welsh mining valleys, Gloucester traditionally drew its support and its playing strength from local working-class communities. The Shed, so-called because it looks like a cow shed, dates back to the 1950s. Gloucester's fanzine refers to it as 'the cauldron of fear'. The Shed is standing-only terracing that runs continuously down one touchline, opposite the point where visiting teams emerge from the dressing rooms. Its low tin roof amplifies the effect of a passionate support which has been mentioned by commentators sitting above it during live broadcasts.

In 2006, the club announced it would be making an extension to Kingsholm, bringing the stadium capacity up to 19,000, to cope with higher levels of spectators. It was also to comply with Premier Rugby's minimum seat number requirements.

In January 2007, the club announced that it plans to redevelop The Shed. This is to enable the stadium to become all-seating. A large amount of supporters do not want to see this happen, and a campaign under the banner of "Save Our Shed" or "SOS" was begun.

A suggested compromise is for the club to replicate the design of Northampton RFC’s ground, Franklin's Gardens, where terracing runs in conjunction with a large seated area.

[edit] Modernisation

At the start of the 2005 season, the club chairman Tom Walkinshaw began several changes to modernise the club in order to keep up with rugby's rapidly advancing professionalism, whilst the majority of fans support the need to modernise the club some fans are concerned that the club is losing touch with its heritage and traditions. 'Gloucester Rugby Football Club' has now been renamed as 'Gloucester Rugby' and, due to copyright issues, no longer use Gloucester City's Coat of Arms as the clubs crest (as the crest didn't belong to the club, and as such with no copyright, unofficial merchandise was freely available).

[edit] Colours

The famous cherry and white hooped jersey did not originally belong to the club (the team originally played in blue shirts). Painswick RFC, based in Gloucestershire and the oldest village club, are the original 'Cherry and Whites' (although they didn't use the nickname). After Gloucester's inception, Painswick RFC sent the new club their congratulations and best wishes along with 15 of their jerseys, but the Gloucester club never returned them. However in 2003 to celebrate Gloucester's 130th anniversary, Gloucester returned the favour and gave Painswick RFC 15 Gloucester jerseys.

The club's new jerseys no longer feature the cherry-and-white hoops, instead featuring a largely red shirt with white sleeve's and blue-and-white strips down the sides. On the release of this new jersey there was a large amount of disappointment in Gloucester Rugby Clubs decision to move away from the hooped design, a design generally associated with traditional rugby shirts, as this was a dramatic move away from the classic Gloucester design. However the majority of fans have now accepted the new design. After the new Gloucester shirt was released Cotton Traders, who supply Gloucester Jerseys, released a classic plain cherry and white hooped Gloucester Jersey, albeit an unofficial jersey which is not associated with the club, however many of the fans who disapproved of the new original design were able to purchase this classic design instead.

[edit] Nickname

Throughout Gloucester Rugby Clubs history the club has never had an official nickname, the first unofficial nickname for the club was 'the elver eaters', although that name is distant memory mused over by the club oldest and longest supporters, the classic 'cherry and whites' nickname, which has become synonymous with the club, was created by the media in reference to the clubs colours and was happily accepted by the clubs fans. As recently as 2004 the club unofficially supported the nickname and even used it in advertising campaigns such as 'the future's bright, the future's cherry and white'.

However, in a sudden u-turn, in 2005 the club declared that it wished to disassociate itself from the cherry and white nickname. Suggesting, amongst other reasons, that the club wished an more intimidating nickname be used, rumours suggested that the club was in favour of re-branding as the 'Gloucester Lions', although this was never confirmed. In response to the rumours the Kingsholm Supporters Mutual (KSM), A supporters group set up by the club in 2003, stated they were 'concerned' with the suggested changes declaring that the name 'cherry and whites' was synonymous with the club. Other fan suggested nicknames such as the "meteors' or 'javelins' in reference to the city aviation links were met with similar negative responses.

The issue of the clubs nickname has created split opinions amongst it supporters. There are some who would like to see the 'cherry and whites' nickname made official and who see the club suggesting that a colour isn't intimidating as ludicrous, pointing out that probably the most intimidating team in the world are the New Zealand All Blacks, who don't seem to find having a colour nickname crippling. Many fans don't see the need of having an official nickname and are happy to simply use 'Gloucester', but regardless of the clubs official nickname the majority of fans in general have, at the very least, a fond affection for the 'cherry and whites'.

The media continues to refer to Gloucester as the 'cherry and whites' and the club itself has said no more over a possible name change ,while the 'cherry and whites' nickname is likely to never become official the club will probably be forever referred to as the 'cherry and whites'.

[edit] Guinness Premiership Table 2006/07

2006/2007 Guinness Premiership Table watch · edit · discuss
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Bonus points Points
Leicester Tigers* 20 13 1 6 513 393 13 66
Gloucester 19 14 1 4 463 351 5 63
Saracens 19 11 2 6 473 331 9 57
Bristol 19 12 1 6 333 329 6 56
Wasps 19 10 1 8 416 336 10 52
London Irish 19 11 0 8 333 330 3 47
Harlequins 19 8 0 11 401 388 9 41
Sale Sharks 20 7 1 12 382 425 8 38
Bath 19 7 1 11 364 434 8 38
Newcastle Falcons 19 7 0 12 388 489 8 36
Worcester Warriors 19 5 1 13 291 404 7 29
Northampton Saints 19 5 1 13 279 426 6 28
Reference www.guinnesspremiership.com and BBC Sport: Updated 2007-04-06 --- Current English Leagues

* Leicester were deducted one point for fielding an ineligible player


[edit] Squad

Backs: Jack Adams, Anthony Allen, James Bailey, Iain Balshaw, Brad Davies, Mark Foster, Jon Goodridge, Rudi Keil, Ryan Lamb, Rory Lawson, Ludovic Mercier, Olly Morgan, Karl Pryce, Peter Richards, James Simpson-Daniel, Rob Thirlby, Haydn Thomas, Mike Tindall, Willie Walker, Jack Miles.

Forwards: Olivier Azam, Adam Balding, Jake Boer, Marco Bortolami, Alex Brown, Peter Buxton, Christian Califano, Patrice Collazo, Mefin Davies, Rob Elloway, Adam Eustace, James Forrester, Jack Forster, Andy Hazell, Will James, Ross McMillan, James Merriman, Dean Miller, Luke Narraway, Carlos Nieto, Jonathan Pendlebury & Nick Wood, Conor Ryan, Andy Titterell.

[edit] Current England elite squad

[edit] Other internationals

[edit] Club honours

  • National Merit Table 'A' winners 1985-86
  • League runners-up 1988-89 1989-90 2002-03
  • Zurich Championship winners 2001-02
  • Cup winners 1971-72 1977-78 1981-82 (shared) 2002-03
  • Cup runners-up 1989-90
  • C&G League Cup winners 1997-98 1998-99
  • European Challenge Cup winners 2005-06
  • Powergen cup winners 2003

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Rugby union in England
Federation: Rugby Football Union
National team: England • England Saxons • England Sevens • British and Irish Lions
International Competitions: Rugby World Cup • Six Nations Championship • Heineken Cup • European Challenge Cup • European Shield • Churchill Cup • Rugby World Cup Sevens • IRB Sevens World Series • London Sevens
Domestic Competitions: Guinness Premiership • EDF Energy Cup • National Division One • National Division Two • National Division Three North • National Division Three South
Guinness Premiership teams: Bath • Bristol • Gloucester • Harlequins • Leicester Tigers • London Irish • Newcastle Falcons • Northampton Saints • Sale Sharks • Saracens • London Wasps • Worcester Warriors
National Division One teams: Bedford • Cornish Pirates • Coventry • Doncaster • Exeter Chiefs • Leeds Tykes • London Welsh • Moseley • Newbury • Nottingham • Otley • Pertemps Bees • Plymouth Albion • Rotherham • Sedgley Park • Waterloo
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../g/l/o/Gloucester_RFC_3cfe.html"
In other languages