Henley Rugby Club is a rugby union club based in Henley-on-Thames, that is the leading rugby club in the Thames Valley (London Irish play their matches at the Madejski Stadium but their headquarters are still at Sunbury, Middlesex where all their junior teams are based). The club play in English National Division Two South which places them amongst the top 60 clubs in England.
Henley have developed a working relationship with London Wasps, who use Dry Leas for their A-team matches, and also loan squad players to Henley for development.
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Henley RFC was founded in August 1930 as Old Henleiensians (old boys of Henley Grammar School). After a break during the war years it was re-founded in 1954 and changed its name to Henley RFC in 1963. It has been based at Dry Leas since then.
The ground is leased from the Town Council with the unexpired portion being nearly 50 years. When the leagues were started in 1987 Henley were placed in South West II.
Henley's fortunes stood still until Clive Woodward, England's future World Cup winning manager, became the 1st XV coach in 1990. His introduction of the "flat ball" philosophy was a pioneering event for British rugby and brought promotion in 1992. Henley gained a further promotion in 1994 to the National Leagues and, after Woodward departed to coach London Irish, Henley continued to play fluid rugby and two further promotions ensued (in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons), landing the club in what is now National Division One.
Also in 1999, Henley enjoyed a record run in the Tetley's Bitter Cup, defeating Premier 1 club Bedford in the fourth Round before bowing out to Gloucester at Kingsholm, in a game that saw roughly 14 Henley supporters in attendance.
They finished ninth in National One in 1999-2000, seventh in 2000-01 but finished 13th in 2001-02 and were relegated to National Division Two. They regained their place in National One by finishing second in 2002-03 but two years later were relegated back into National Two. After flirting with promotion from National Division Two in season 2006-7, finishing third by one point to Launceston, the following season was little short of disastrous resulting in relegation to National Division 3 (South). Last season, 2009-10 they struggled during the middle part of the season to face further relegation worries but a good finish to the year resulted in a mid-table finish. This season has seen a large improvement on the previous season's performances especially during the middle of the year and the squad are hopeful of a top 6 finish.
The Hawks squad is now coached by ex-Hawks players Steve Barnes and Pete Davies.
Summary of current league positions.
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