Wakefield RFC
Encyclopedia
Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union
club, founded in 1901, and which dropped out of the English leagues
in 2004 as a result of the effects of professionalism. It was based at College Grove in Wakefield
, West Yorkshire
.
and the move of Wakefield Trinity
, who had been the principal rugby club in the city, to the new code.
On 15 June 1901, the Wakefield Express printed a short notice: “A movement is on foot to form a new Rugby football club on purely amateur lines to play under Rugby Union
rules, and a meeting to promote that object has been called”. One of the clubs first vice presidents was former England and British Lion international Osbert Mackie
.
England International JW Sagar was the club's first captain and he expressed the wish that the formation of the club would provide the opportunity for the local grammar school boys to continue in the game in the city rather than having to move elsewhere. Players to benefit from this objective included Bill Guest
, a former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) pupil between 1918 and 1922, who was to become one of the leading figures at Wakefield both as a player and administrator until his death in 1991. Silcoates School
produced among others, Steve Townend, the club's second leading appearance maker and prolific point scorer, who was to join the coaching staff after finishing his playing days, eventually becoming Director of Rugby.
("T’owd tin pot") and were to win it on a further seven occasions, (1922, 1969, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994)
The 1920s saw the first international capped while at Wakefield, when Dr John McDougall
won three caps for Scotland to add to his caps won before the First World War while at Greenock Wanderers.
The war saw the death of Frank Alford Kingswell, a member of the club’s very first team at Mytholmroyd
and from the start of the 1920/21 season, his brother, Billy Kingswell, made the former Outwood Church ground (renamed in memory of his brother) available to the club.
This was the club's home until a move to College Grove in 1935 and they remained there until their demise in 2004.
The 1930s saw two further internationals, Reg Bolton
winning one cap in 1932/33 before adding to this when he moved to Harlequins
and Jack Ellis
, winning a solitary cap against Scotland in 1938/39, the outbreak of the Second World War cutting short his international career, although he did play in service and Red Cross internationals.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the club developed two players who were to gain International caps for England whilst playing for other clubs - Phil Taylor with Northampton
and Dave Rollitt
with Bristol
.
Bryan Barley
won the first of his seven England
caps in 1983/84. Barley was closely followed by Mike Harrison
, who captained England in the first Rugby World Cup
in 1987 and was the club's most capped player with fifteen caps, seven of which were as England captain. Graham Marshall
was capped by Scotland shortly after leaving the club.
Dave Scully
was to become the club's only World Cup winner, when he starred for England in the first World Cup sevens tournament winning the ‘moment of the tournament' for a crunching tackle on Fijian Mesake Rasari.
Barley, Harrison and Scully were to encapsulate the running rugby for which Wakefield had become known since their formation and this probably was one of the reasons that the club lost a substantial number of players to rugby league over the years. This led to the famous comment from Robin Foster, the club’s press officer in October 1967 “Wakefield Trinity
will run short of cash before we run out of players”.
The running game brought the club wider recognition and in 1975/76 the club was admitted to the John Player Cup for the first time and reached the semi-final, with ‘giant killing’ wins over Moseley and Northampton
before a narrow defeat at Rosslyn Park.
Jeff Dowson the club captain during this run, was nominated by Rugby Union Writers club as ‘Personality of the year’ and was later to play for the Barbarians
. Les Cusworth
, (the British club record holder of 25 drop goals in just 21 games in 1974/75), was later to play for England following a move to Leicester and Neil Bennett a county winger and prodigious try scorer, was to continue playing for the club until 1989, becoming Wakefield’s leading appearance maker playing in 504 first team games and scoring 245 tries in the process.
The 1970s were to see Wakefield designated a ‘major club’ by the RFU. On formation of the leagues in the 1980s Wakefield were placed in Division 3, winning the league title in 1987/88 and remaining in Division 2 for a record fifteen seasons until relegation
at the end of the 2003/04 season.
A proposed takeover by Bradford Bulls
rugby league club in January 2002 amounted to nothing, although three Wakefield players (Mark Sowerby, a former England Sevens
captain, Jon Feeley and Jon Skurr) helped Bradford Bulls win the Middlesex 7s in 2002. (Wakefield themselves won the plate competition at the 1996 Middlesex Sevens.)
The relegation at the end of the 2003/04 season and the subsequent drop in RFU subsidy was the major factor in the demise of the club. In a memo to the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport dated 11 May 1999, the club reported
"Wakefield RFC has since the advent of professional rugby [union] made cumulative operating losses of approximately £500,000".
The shareholders of the club decided that they could not continue to provide the same level of funding to the club upon relegation to Division 3. Plans to sell the club's ‘league place’, to a consortium who wanted to move the club to Oxford were blocked by the RFU, who also blocked similar moves to ‘merge’ or ‘move’ the club with Sale FC and Halifax. Two South African consortiums also showed interest in moving the club to London but these attempts come to nothing.
A merger with cross-city rivals Sandal, formed in 1927 by former Wakefield player Claude Beaumont, failed to materialise. (Wakefield Cougars, an amateur side formed during the 1990s from the Wakefield fourth team, did move to Sandal for a season before ceasing to exist as an independent side in 2004/05).
Just three years after celebrating its centenary the club was forced to withdraw from the league during the summer of 2004, although they remain non-playing members of the RFU and Yorkshire RFU.
and Dean Schofield
playing the Premiership whilst Dan Scarbrough
plays for Racing Metro in the French top 14 and Warren Spragg
plays in the Italian Super 10 competition for Petrarca Padova.
Lloyd, Scarbrough, Schofield are England Internationals whilst Spragg is an Italian International
. Jonathan Pettemerides who currently plays for Singapore Cricket Club and is captain of the Cypriot national side
Nigel Melville
is the chief executive officer and president of rugby operations for USA Rugby
while Les Cusworth
is Argentina's Director of Rugby.
Stuart Lancaster
is head of Elite Player Development for the England Rugby Football Union and Jon Skurr is Irish Rugby Union Sevens coach
. http://www.irishrugby.ie/6855_12713.php
Geoff Cooke
who was briefly Chief Executive of the club in the 1998/99 season was Executive Director of First Division Rugby Limited, the collective organisation who ran National League One of the English Rugby Union
Clubs Championship before re-organisation of the leagues in 2009/10.
Diccon Edwards
is in charge of the Leeds Carnegie
Academy, Jimmy Rule is Chief Executive at Hull Rugby League club, and Ryan Duckett is General Manager and Director of Operations of Bradford Bulls
.
Two former players are playing in the Rugby League Super League
, Paul Sykes
for Bradford Bulls RL
and Rob Parker for Salford City Reds
. Both played for Wakefield during their brief link up with Bradford Bulls
.
Selected Sevens competitions
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
club, founded in 1901, and which dropped out of the English leagues
English rugby union system
England has a comprehensive league structure in place, including national fully professional leagues to amateur regional leagues.The format and competitiveness of the leagues have changed greatly since their beginnings in 1987...
in 2004 as a result of the effects of professionalism. It was based at College Grove in Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
.
Foundation
Wakefield RFC was founded in 1901, six years after the schism in rugby that saw the formation of the Northern UnionRugby Football League
The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league football in England. Based at Red Hall in Leeds, it administers the England national rugby league team, the Challenge Cup, Super League and the Rugby League Championships...
and the move of Wakefield Trinity
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats are a professional rugby league club that plays in the European Super League and is based in Wakefield. They achieved promotion in 1999 and have remained in the League since. They are known to their fans as Wakey, Trinity, Wildcats, or historically The Dreadnoughts...
, who had been the principal rugby club in the city, to the new code.
On 15 June 1901, the Wakefield Express printed a short notice: “A movement is on foot to form a new Rugby football club on purely amateur lines to play under Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
rules, and a meeting to promote that object has been called”. One of the clubs first vice presidents was former England and British Lion international Osbert Mackie
Osbert Mackie
Osbert Gadesden Mackie was an English rugby union centre and Anglican priest. Mackie played club rugby for Wakefield Trinity and Cambridge University and county rugby for Yorkshire...
.
England International JW Sagar was the club's first captain and he expressed the wish that the formation of the club would provide the opportunity for the local grammar school boys to continue in the game in the city rather than having to move elsewhere. Players to benefit from this objective included Bill Guest
William Guest (rugby player)
William Guest MBE was a rugby player for Wakefield RFC, a major in the Territorial Army and was awarded the MBE for services to Army sport.William Guest was from Ackworth, near Wakefield and educated at QEGS Wakefield from 1913 to 1921....
, a former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) pupil between 1918 and 1922, who was to become one of the leading figures at Wakefield both as a player and administrator until his death in 1991. Silcoates School
Silcoates School
Silcoates School is a public school in Wakefield, England. It was founded in 1820 as the Northern Congregational School at Silcoates House, for the board and education of the sons of non-conformist clergy; it was located close to Ossett and Horbury, which both had unusually large nonconformist...
produced among others, Steve Townend, the club's second leading appearance maker and prolific point scorer, who was to join the coaching staff after finishing his playing days, eventually becoming Director of Rugby.
1920-1996
The club's first honours were in 1920, when they won the Yorkshire CupYorkshire Cup (rugby union)
The Yorkshire Cup is an English Rugby Football Union competition founded in 1878. It is open to all eligible clubs in the Yorkshire area. It was initially known as the Yorkshire Challenge Cup.-History:...
("T’owd tin pot") and were to win it on a further seven occasions, (1922, 1969, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994)
The 1920s saw the first international capped while at Wakefield, when Dr John McDougall
John McDougall (rugby player)
John Bowes MacDougall was a Scottish international rugby union player who won five caps between 1913 and 1921.He played club rugby for and Wakefield RFC....
won three caps for Scotland to add to his caps won before the First World War while at Greenock Wanderers.
The war saw the death of Frank Alford Kingswell, a member of the club’s very first team at Mytholmroyd
Mytholmroyd
Mytholmroyd is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies east of Hebden Bridge and west of Halifax....
and from the start of the 1920/21 season, his brother, Billy Kingswell, made the former Outwood Church ground (renamed in memory of his brother) available to the club.
This was the club's home until a move to College Grove in 1935 and they remained there until their demise in 2004.
The 1930s saw two further internationals, Reg Bolton
Reg Bolton (rugby player)
Reg Bolton was an England International rugby player. He played five times for England making his debut against Wales in 1933...
winning one cap in 1932/33 before adding to this when he moved to Harlequins
Harlequin F.C.
The Harlequin Football Club is an English rugby union team who play in the top level of English rugby, the Aviva Premiership. Their ground in London is Twickenham Stoop...
and Jack Ellis
Jack Ellis (rugby player)
Jack Ellis was an England international rugby union player. At the time of his death it was reported that he was the oldest living England international rugby player, although it was later discovered this was incorrect .-Rugby career:...
, winning a solitary cap against Scotland in 1938/39, the outbreak of the Second World War cutting short his international career, although he did play in service and Red Cross internationals.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the club developed two players who were to gain International caps for England whilst playing for other clubs - Phil Taylor with Northampton
Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints are a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The Northampton Saints were formed in 1880. They play in green, black and gold colours. They play their home games at Franklin's Gardens, which has a capacity of 13,591....
and Dave Rollitt
Dave Rollitt
David Malcom Rollitt was an England rugby union international No 8.winning eleven caps between 1967 and 1975.He was educated at Barnsley Grammar school and attended Bristol University where he studied Physics...
with Bristol
Bristol Rugby
Bristol Rugby is a rugby union club based in Bristol, England. The club currently plays in the RFU Championship and competes in the British and Irish Cup. They rely in large part on the many junior rugby clubs in the region, particularly those from 'the Combination'...
.
Bryan Barley
Bryan Barley
Bryan Barley was a former England international rugby union centre.He was educated at Normanton Grammar School and Leeds University where he studied economics and mathematics....
won the first of his seven England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
caps in 1983/84. Barley was closely followed by Mike Harrison
Mike Harrison (rugby player)
Mike Harrison is a former first-class rugby union footballer, playing on the wing for Wakefield and England....
, who captained England in the first Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
in 1987 and was the club's most capped player with fifteen caps, seven of which were as England captain. Graham Marshall
Graham Marshall (rugby player)
Graham Marshall was a Scottish international rugby union player who won four caps between 1988 and 1991.He played club rugby for Wakefield RFC and Selkirk....
was capped by Scotland shortly after leaving the club.
Dave Scully
Dave Scully
David Scully is an English rugby union player who was part of the England 7's squad that won the 1993 Sevens world cup in which he won the for a crunching tackle on Fijian Mesake Rasari.-Playing career:...
was to become the club's only World Cup winner, when he starred for England in the first World Cup sevens tournament winning the ‘moment of the tournament' for a crunching tackle on Fijian Mesake Rasari.
Barley, Harrison and Scully were to encapsulate the running rugby for which Wakefield had become known since their formation and this probably was one of the reasons that the club lost a substantial number of players to rugby league over the years. This led to the famous comment from Robin Foster, the club’s press officer in October 1967 “Wakefield Trinity
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats are a professional rugby league club that plays in the European Super League and is based in Wakefield. They achieved promotion in 1999 and have remained in the League since. They are known to their fans as Wakey, Trinity, Wildcats, or historically The Dreadnoughts...
will run short of cash before we run out of players”.
The running game brought the club wider recognition and in 1975/76 the club was admitted to the John Player Cup for the first time and reached the semi-final, with ‘giant killing’ wins over Moseley and Northampton
Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints are a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The Northampton Saints were formed in 1880. They play in green, black and gold colours. They play their home games at Franklin's Gardens, which has a capacity of 13,591....
before a narrow defeat at Rosslyn Park.
Jeff Dowson the club captain during this run, was nominated by Rugby Union Writers club as ‘Personality of the year’ and was later to play for the Barbarians
Barbarian F.C.
The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...
. Les Cusworth
Les Cusworth
Les Cusworth is a former English rugby union footballer and current Argentine Director of Rugby.-Education:He was educated at Normanton Grammar School and the West Midlands Teacher Training college....
, (the British club record holder of 25 drop goals in just 21 games in 1974/75), was later to play for England following a move to Leicester and Neil Bennett a county winger and prodigious try scorer, was to continue playing for the club until 1989, becoming Wakefield’s leading appearance maker playing in 504 first team games and scoring 245 tries in the process.
The 1970s were to see Wakefield designated a ‘major club’ by the RFU. On formation of the leagues in the 1980s Wakefield were placed in Division 3, winning the league title in 1987/88 and remaining in Division 2 for a record fifteen seasons until relegation
Promotion and relegation
In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...
at the end of the 2003/04 season.
Decline in the professional era
Declining attendances and a struggle to cope with professionalism led to the club to seek solutions for its long-term future.A proposed takeover by Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
rugby league club in January 2002 amounted to nothing, although three Wakefield players (Mark Sowerby, a former England Sevens
England national rugby union team (sevens)
The English national rugby union sevens team compete in the World Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games.-Honours:* 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament - Winners* Rugby World Cup Sevens Winners 1993* Hong Kong Sevens Winners 2002* Hong Kong Sevens Winners 2003*...
captain, Jon Feeley and Jon Skurr) helped Bradford Bulls win the Middlesex 7s in 2002. (Wakefield themselves won the plate competition at the 1996 Middlesex Sevens.)
The relegation at the end of the 2003/04 season and the subsequent drop in RFU subsidy was the major factor in the demise of the club. In a memo to the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport dated 11 May 1999, the club reported
"Wakefield RFC has since the advent of professional rugby [union] made cumulative operating losses of approximately £500,000".
The shareholders of the club decided that they could not continue to provide the same level of funding to the club upon relegation to Division 3. Plans to sell the club's ‘league place’, to a consortium who wanted to move the club to Oxford were blocked by the RFU, who also blocked similar moves to ‘merge’ or ‘move’ the club with Sale FC and Halifax. Two South African consortiums also showed interest in moving the club to London but these attempts come to nothing.
A merger with cross-city rivals Sandal, formed in 1927 by former Wakefield player Claude Beaumont, failed to materialise. (Wakefield Cougars, an amateur side formed during the 1990s from the Wakefield fourth team, did move to Sandal for a season before ceasing to exist as an independent side in 2004/05).
Just three years after celebrating its centenary the club was forced to withdraw from the league during the summer of 2004, although they remain non-playing members of the RFU and Yorkshire RFU.
Post-club days
Wakefield’s memory is being kept alive, with two former players; Nick LloydNick Lloyd
Nick Lloyd was a professional rugby union player.He was educated at Dulwich College. He was selected for the Scottish squad for the 2004/05 qualifying through his paternal grandmother from Aberdeen after earlier appearances in the Scottish Exiles squad,Nick made his England representative debut...
and Dean Schofield
Dean Schofield
Dean Schofield is a professional Rugby union player who plays for RC Toulon. He plays lock and is a product of Aldwinians RUFC. He first came to prominence when scoring twice as Aldwinians beat Dudley Kingswinsford in the NPI Cup Final at Twickenham...
playing the Premiership whilst Dan Scarbrough
Dan Scarbrough
Dan Scarbrough is a rugby union player who plays on the wing or full back for Racing Métro.He was National Division One leading try scorer with Wakefield for two seasons before moving to Leeds Tykes where he continued his try scoring exploits, finishing second in the 2001/2002 list of Zurich...
plays for Racing Metro in the French top 14 and Warren Spragg
Warren Spragg
Warren Spragg is an Italian Rugby Union international. He is 6 foot tall and 189 lbs . He is a versatile back and goalkicker-Education:Warren Spragg was educated at Kirkham Grammar School...
plays in the Italian Super 10 competition for Petrarca Padova.
Lloyd, Scarbrough, Schofield are England Internationals whilst Spragg is an Italian International
Italy national rugby union team
The Italy national rugby union team represent the nation of Italy in the sport of rugby union. The team is also known as the Azzurri . Italy have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and since 2000 compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland,...
. Jonathan Pettemerides who currently plays for Singapore Cricket Club and is captain of the Cypriot national side
Cyprus national rugby union team
The Cyprus National Rugby Union Team known as "The Moufflons" is the representative side of Cyprus in rugby union. Their nickname is "The Moufflons" after a kind of horned sheep which is also the Republic's national animal, the Cypriot mouflon...
Nigel Melville
Nigel Melville
Nigel David Melville is a former England national rugby union team scrum half and captain.He became the youngest player to captain England on his début when he led them against Australia in November 1984. He went onto make another twelve appearances over the next four years.He attended Aireborough...
is the chief executive officer and president of rugby operations for USA Rugby
USA Rugby
USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. It is divided into seven territorial Unions: Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, Pacific Coast, Southern California, South, and West...
while Les Cusworth
Les Cusworth
Les Cusworth is a former English rugby union footballer and current Argentine Director of Rugby.-Education:He was educated at Normanton Grammar School and the West Midlands Teacher Training college....
is Argentina's Director of Rugby.
Stuart Lancaster
Stuart Lancaster (rugby)
Stuart Lancaster is the Head of Elite Player Development for the England Rugby Football Union.-Rugby career:...
is head of Elite Player Development for the England Rugby Football Union and Jon Skurr is Irish Rugby Union Sevens coach
Ireland national rugby union team (sevens)
The Ireland national rugby union sevens team have previously competed in the IRB Sevens World Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens. Although there is no permanent team at present, there may well be in the future.-Results:...
. http://www.irishrugby.ie/6855_12713.php
Geoff Cooke
Geoff Cooke
Geoff Cooke OBE is a former England Rugby coach.-Early career:During his playing career he played mainly as a Centre/Fly Half 1962-72 and captained his Club and his County. Cooke also attended York St John University. He was coach to Bradford RFC 1973 to 1975, coach to Yorkshire Rugby Football...
who was briefly Chief Executive of the club in the 1998/99 season was Executive Director of First Division Rugby Limited, the collective organisation who ran National League One of the English Rugby Union
Rugby Football Union
The Rugby Football Union was founded in 1871 as the governing body for the sport of rugby union, and performed as the international governing body prior to the formation of the International Rugby Board in 1886...
Clubs Championship before re-organisation of the leagues in 2009/10.
Diccon Edwards
Diccon Edwards
Diccon Edwards was a professional rugby player, playing international rugby league for Wales. He is currently coach of Leeds Carnegie Academy and Otley....
is in charge of the Leeds Carnegie
Leeds Tykes
Leeds Carnegie is an English rugby union club, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, currently playing in the RFU Championship. In recent years, they have bounced between the Premiership and the second-level National Division One, now known as the RFU Championship; they were either promoted or relegated...
Academy, Jimmy Rule is Chief Executive at Hull Rugby League club, and Ryan Duckett is General Manager and Director of Operations of Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
.
Two former players are playing in the Rugby League Super League
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...
, Paul Sykes
Paul Sykes (rugby league footballer)
Paul Sykes is an English professional rugby league footballer for the Bradford Bulls of Europe's Super League competition.Sykes' position of choice is at Right-. He has for most of his career operated at...
for Bradford Bulls RL
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
and Rob Parker for Salford City Reds
Salford City Reds
Salford City Reds are an English rugby league club based in Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1873, they currently play in the Super League. They have won six Rugby Football League Championships and one Challenge Cup...
. Both played for Wakefield during their brief link up with Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
.
Honours
- Yorkshire County Cup winners: 1920, 1922, 1969, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994
- Northern Merit Table winners: 1981/82
- Courage League Division 3 winners: 1987/88
Selected Sevens competitions
- Selkirk Sevens winners: 1987 (first English winners in 68 years of the tournament)
- Lord Taverners Sevens winners: 1987
- Caldy Sevens winners: 1991
- National Sevens Northern Division winners: 1992