Rotterdamse Rugby Club

Info

The Rotterdam Rugby club was founded in September 1940, as an act of resistance during WWII, because rugby was considered to be a typically British sport. The club colours are orange and green.

Geschiedenis

The Rotterdam Rugby club was founded in September 1940, as an act of resistance during WWII, because rugby was considered to be a typically British sport. The club colours, orange and green, chosen as an act of juvenile resistance, became a very visible statement against those evil forces of that time. The orange represented the Dutch Royal family, the house of Orange. This was combined with dark green, the colour of Rotterdam’s city crest.

In the season of 1941 – 1942 RRC counted 24 members. The contribution was two Dutch guilders per month.

While starting out with just the use of a football field, RRC kept moving on and obtained a better location, including a clubhouse. Unfortunately the clubhouse burnt down in the summer of 1998. Most of the memorabilia were lost in the fire. The clubs’ members rebuilt their club house and started over.

In 2006 RRC lost the fight with the city council and had to relocate again to make place for the high speed train (HSL)

September 2006 Rotterdam Rugby Club moved to their current location, Sportpark Duivensteyn in Hillegersberg.

Starting over yet again, over the last years Rotterdam had to work hard to make the new location feel like home. Starting 2006 sharing a canteen with the neighbouring football club, and field lights that ran on a simple back up generator, Rotterdam now has their own clubhouse which they built themselves.

Although Rotterdam has participated in the Dutch competition with varied results, the club has always played a prominent role in Dutch league. After playing on the highest level for years, Rotterdam hit an all-time low and got relegated to the second league in the season of 1992 – 1993 and was left with just one team in the league. Luckily Rotterdam got back on it’s feet fast and became unbeaten champion of the first league. Currently Rotterdam is a high level player. Recent successes were third place in the premier league – season 1996 – 1997 and the national championship for the colts in season 1997 – 1998.

Even though Rotterdam does not play a big role in the national selections, Rotterdam can pride itself of becoming one of the main suppliers of the National U19 talents.