The North Midlands Rugby Football Union is a governing body for rugby union in part of The Midlands, England. The union is the constituent body of the Rugby Football Union for the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and the Greater Birmingham area.
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History
The North Midlands RFU was founded at a meeting in Birmingham on 14 January 1920. The area had been previously been part of the Midland Counties Rugby Union, from which Warwickshire split in 1914, with further changes in 1919 leading to Leicestershire Rugby Union becoming a county on its own and North Midlands being created for the Birmingham, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire areas. The majority of the clubs in the union's initial membership came from the Birmingham area.
County team
The North Midlands county team play in the County Championship, competing in the Bill Beaumont Cup Div 2 South in the 2014-15 season. They won the County Championship Plate competition (when it was known as the Tetley's County Shield) back in 2004.
North Midlands Cup
Since the 1971-72 season there has been a North Midlands Cup competition for clubs based in the North Midlands area. In 2001 the North Midlands Shield was introduced while the North Midlands Vase followed in 2005. From 2014 'Plate' competitions have been introduced for teams knocked during the early stages of the cup/shield/vase. At present the various cup competitions are open to teams in the region that are tier 5 or below in the English rugby union system.