Heidelberger RK

The Heidelberger Ruderklub (Heidelberger RK or HRK for short) is a German rowing club and rugby union club from Heidelberg, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga.

The club is one of only two professional rugby clubs in Germany, the other being SC 1880 Frankfurt. The turn to professionalism in a sport otherwise fully amateur in Germany was made possible through the support of Hans-Peter Wild, who owns a soft drink manufacturing buisness.^[1]

History

The clubs origins date back to 1872, when, on 9 May, the Deutschen Flaggen-Club Heidelberg was formed, a rowing club.^[2] In the early days, several rowing clubs were formed in Heidelberg and disappeared again, but the remaining ones merged in 1875 to form the Heidelberger Ruderclub, under the leadership of the Flaggen-Club.

The game of rugby was introduced in the club in the early 1890s by Edward Hill Ullrich, who was partly of English descend and had a great love of "English" games, translating the rules of rugby into German. It is from this beginnings that the HRK claims to be the oldest rugby club in Germany. This is true in the sense that its the oldest rugby-playing club in Germany but other clubs have an older rugby department.

The club had a golden era in the late 1920s, when it reached the German championship final three years in a row, winning the title in 1927 and 1928.

After years of stagnation and a lack of home ground, the HRK formed a youth department and moved to the Sportgelände an der Speyererstraße in 1961, which is still its current home. This development soon bore fruit and the club earned three championships in the 1970s, also qualifying for the new Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971. The club continued to be a force in German rugby well into the 80's, earning its last championship in 1986.

After a period of decline, it found itself in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga, where it was promoted from back to the first division in 1997. After a short stint in this league, the team had to return to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2000, where it was to remain for the next couple of seasons.

The club dominated the 2nd Bundesliga South/West in 2004-05, winning all 16 regular season games, the largest win being a 146-5 victory over BSC Offenbach. In the final against the North/East champion DSV 78/08 Ricklingen, a 18-6 victory meant promotion back to the Bundesliga.^[3]

Since then, the club has existed as a lower table side in the league, sitting just above the relegation zone. In 2008-09, the clubs performance has much improved and a second place saw the team return to the German finals for the first time in over 20 years. In the semi-finals, the club beat SC Neuenheim, to reach its first national championship final since 1986, where it narrowly lost 11-8 to SC 1880 Frankfurt. The following season, HRK finished third in the league but reached the final once more, this time defeating SC 1880 39-22 in extra time, to earn its first national championship since 1986. It repeated this achievement in 2010-11 when it defeated Frankfurt once more in a closely fought final, winning 12-9. Having won the men's national cup and sevens championship as well as the national championship and sevens championship with the women's, the HRK took out all five available national titles in 2010-11.^[4]

In 2011-12, the club will also take part in the North Sea Cup, a European Cup competition made up of two clubs each from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.^[5]

The clubs reserve side has played for many years in the league below, the 2nd Bundesliga South/West.

The club also has a successful women's team, which plays at the highest level in Germany, the Women's Rugby Bundesliga, but it took the team until 2010 to win a national championship at this level. It has however won the national sevens championship in the past.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under IRB eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-IRB nationality.

Club honours

Men

• German rugby union championship
  • Champions: 1927, 1928, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1986, 2010, 2011
  • Runners up: 1929, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1985, 2009

• German rugby union cup
  • Winner: 1973, 1976, 2011
  • Runners up: 2003

• German sevens championship
  • Champions: 2011

• 2nd Bundesliga
  • Champions: 1997, 2005

Women

• German rugby union championship
  • Champions: 2010, 2011
  • Runners up: 2007, 2009

• German sevens championship
  • Champions: 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011

Recent seasons

Men: First team

• Until 2001, when the single-division Bundesliga was established, the season was divided in autumn and spring, a Vorrunde and Endrunde, whereby the top teams of the Rugby-Bundesliga would play out the championship while the bottom teams together with the autumn 2nd Bundesliga champion would play for Bundesliga qualification. The remainder of the 2nd Bundesliga teams would play a spring round to determine the relegated clubs. Where two placing's are shown, the first is autumn, the second spring.

Men: Reserve team

Women

Rugby internationals

In Germany's 2006–08 European Nations Cup campaign, no player from the club was called up for the national team.

In the 2008–10 campaign, Anjo Buckman, Christopher Liebig, Steffen Liebig, Patrick Schliwa and Tim Kasten were new additions to the clubs list of internationals.

In the 2010–12 campaign, Raphael Pyrasch, Pieter Jordaan, Alexander Widiker, Arthur Zeiler, Daniel Armitage, Sean Armstrong and Kehoma Brenner were all new additions to the club's list of German internationals, while Patrick Schliwa, Anjo Buckman, Steffen Liebig and Tim Kasten appeared again.

References

External links

• (German) Official website
• (German) Official website of the rugby department
• Heidelberger RK team info at TotalRugby.de
• Tables and results of the Rugby-Bundesliga at rugbyweb.de