Banbridge RFC

Banbridge RFC

Full name	Banbridge Rugby Football Club
Union	IRFU Ulster
Nickname(s)	Bann
Founded	1926
Ground(s)	Rifle Park, Banbridge
President	Alan Harvey
Coach(es)	Daniel Soper
Captain(s)	Jonny Graham

Banbridge RFC (Banbridge Rugby Football Club) is a rugby union club based in Banbridge, County Down, in the province of Ulster. It currently plays in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League. In addition to the senior team, the club fields another three adult junior-standard teams, and youth U18, U16 and U14 teams, as well as a large mini rugby section.

Formation

Late in 1925, a group of former Banbridge Academy pupils interested in the game of rugby, got together to form a team to play Newry. The date of that historic first game was 2 January 1926. One of the players in that first game was F. E. McWilliam; later the well known Irish surrealist sculptor.

Banbridge spent the next 72 years in the ranks of Ulster junior rugby, with mixed fortunes.

Honours

• Ulster Towns Cup: 3
  • 1932-33, 1988–89, 1992–93
• Ulster Junior Cup: 1
  • 1989-90

Senior status

At the end of the 1997-98 season, Banbridge won the round-robin play-offs against the other provincial qualifying champions Naas, Monivea and Midleton. Their victory secured promotion to Division Four of the All Ireland League for the 1998-99 season. They have remained as an AIL senior club since then.

Touring team

• The Club also have a touring team called the Bluesox that have travelled to Oldham, Newcastle, Cardiff, Edinburgh, The Netherlands, Isle of Man, Czech Republic, Uxbridge, Estonia, Blackpool. Germany, Devon, Germany, Portugal, Irvine, Italy, Leeds, Cardiff and Aylesbury since 1997. In 2015 the team are going to Bristol.

Notable current players

• Rory Best, Ireland and British and Irish Lions

Notable past players

• Tyrone Howe, Ireland and British and Irish Lions
• Simon Best, Ireland

External links

• Banbridge RFC
• Ulster Rugby Irish Rugby Football Union