Location Hamburg, Germany Ground Hamburg | Coach(es) Bernd Gosch Union German Rugby Federation | |
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Full name Hamburger Sport-Verein e. V. Founded 29 September 1887 (Club)
1925 (Rugby department) League(s) Rugby Verbandsliga Nord | ||
The Hamburger SV Rugby is a German rugby union club from Hamburg, currently competing in the Rugby-Verbandsliga Nord, the fourth tier of rugby in Germany. The team is part of a larger club, the Hamburger SV, which also offers other sports like association football, baseball and cricket.
Contents
History
The HSV's Rugby department was founded on 16 October 1925 by track and field athletes of the club and external rugby players. It is the oldest rugby team in Hamburg.
For the most part it has been stuck in the shadow of its local rival FC St. Pauli Rugby. However, over the years HSV managed to win the Hamburg championships twice: once in 1938 and another 40 years later in 1978. This feat earned the team a brief spell in the Rugby-Bundesliga, the highest division of the sport in Germany.
In the 1990s, the club closed its rugby department because of a lack of members. In March 2006, the department was reestablished and a first team formed, consisting mainly (90%) of players who had not played rugby before.
In 2008 the team had to withdraw from the Regionalliga and was demoted to the Verbandsliga due to a lack of players. During the following years the team focused more on restructuring and less on results resulting in occasional victories and a successful campaign, which saw the team finish second in the Verbandsliga Nord in 2012/2013.
Current Season
The team is currently continuing its revival and is permanently looking for new players, although the HSV Rugby team now counts more than 40 active members and players from several countries. Having finished a disappointing fifth in last season's championship, the team have turned their fortunes around by finishing the first half of the 2014/2015 season in a solid second position, behind reigning champions and title favourites TuS Lübeck 93 but ahead of Hamburg rivals FC St. Pauli Rugby III and Hamburger RC.
Club Honours
Recent seasons
Recent seasons of the club: