Henley Hawks

Henley Hawks
Full name Henley Rugby Club
Founded August 1930
Location Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England
Ground(s) Dry Leas (Capacity: 4,000)
Coach(es) Nigel Dudding
League(s) National League 1
2013–14 14th (demoted to National League 2 South)
Team kit
Official website
www.henleyhawks.co.uk

Henley Hawks is a rugby union club based in Henley-on-Thames and is one of the leading rugby clubs in the Thames Valley. (London Irish play their matches at the Madejski Stadium but their headquarters are still at Sunbury, Surrey where all their junior teams are based). The club play in the third tier of the English rugby union system, National Division One after winning National League 2 South in 2012–13; which places them amongst the top 40 clubs in England.

Club Honours

1st Team:

3rd Team:

4th Team:

History

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.

Current standings

2014–15 National League 2 South Table
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points For Points Against Points Difference Try Bonus Losing Bonus Points
1 Henley Hawks (C) 30 24 1 5 956 567 389 19 4 121
2 Bishop's Stortford 30 20 1 9 933 608 325 22 8 112
3 Taunton Titans 30 22 0 8 863 591 272 16 6 110
4 Dorking 30 22 2 6 852 567 285 12 4 108
5 Worthing Raiders 30 19 0 11 804 605 199 19 5 100
6 Chinnor 30 18 0 12 780 639 141 11 9 92
6 Cambridge 30 17 0 13 765 662 103 16 6 90
8 Old Elthamians 30 12 1 17 693 736 -43 9 9 68
9 Redruth 30 13 1 17 577 686 -109 6 6 66
10 Cornish All Blacks 30 12 2 16 625 595 30 3 11 66
12 Canterbury 30 11 2 17 640 721 -81 11 3 63
12 Clifton 30 11 0 19 635 837 -202 9 6 59
13 Southend Saxons 30 12 0 18 640 782 -142 6 7 56[n 1]
14 Lydney (R) 30 11 1 18 546 871 -325 5 5 56
15 Shelford (R) 30 7 0 23 579 938 -359 9 4 36[n 2]
16 Dings Crusaders (R) 30 3 1 26 526 1009 -483 5 3 22
  • If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Number of matches won
  2. Difference between points for and against
  3. Total number of points for
  4. Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
  5. Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background is the promotion place. Blue background is the play-off place. Pink background are relegation places.
Updated: 11 January 2015
Source: "National League 2 South". NCA Rugby.
Notes
  1. ↑
    • Southend were deducted 5 points for playing an unregistered player against Clifton on 15 November 2014[1]
  2. ↑
    • Shelford were deducted 5 points for playing an unregistered player against Lydney on 6 September 2014[2]

Ground

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 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.

Playing record

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. On May 4, 2013, Henley Hawks beat Worthing 55-27 to secure a place in National Division One for the 2013/2014 season.

The Hawks squad is now coached by ex-Hawks players Steve Barnes and Pete Davies.

Notable Players

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Down In The Dumps". Pitchero. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Shelford receive points penalty". Cambridge News. Retrieved 25 September 2014.

External links