Banbridge RFC (Banbridge Rugby Football Club) is a rugby union club based in Banbridge,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland, in the province of Ulster. It currently plays in Division 1B of the Energia All-Ireland League after gaining promotion in 2017 and Division 1 of the SONI Premiership. In addition to the senior team, the club fields another 5 adult junior-standard teams, and youth U18, U16 and U14 teams, as well as a large mini & Maxi rugby section, Mixed Ability Rugby Team named The Barbarians, a Girls/ Ladies Section.

Formation

Late in 1925, a group of former

Banbridge Academy Banbridge Academy is a grammar school in Banbridge, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of I ...

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

* All Ireland League 2A Winners: 1 ** 2016-2017 * 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 Ail or AIL may refer to: * Illness, a state of poor health * Ail (''Sailor Moon''), a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime series * Acceptance in lieu, an arrangement in the UK for accepting works of art etc. in lieu of tax * Agilus, a Frankis ...

senior club since then. In the 2016–2017 season Banbridge gained promotion to AIL 1B.

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, Aylesbury, Bristol, Newcastle, Galway, Carlise and Spain since 1997. In 2020 the tour to Edinburgh was postponed to 2021 due to the Corona Virus Pandemic.

Notable current players

Eric O'Sullivan Eric O'Sullivan (born 30 November 1995) is an Irish rugby union player who plays loosehead prop for United Rugby Championship and European Rugby Champions Cup side Ulster and internationally for Ireland. Born in Dublin, O'Sullivan attended Temp ...

Ulster rugby union team Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Ulster Branch, which is one of th ...

* Rob Lyttle,

James Hume James Hume may refer to: * James Hume (architect) (1798–1868), architect in Sydney, Australia * James Hume (cricketer) (1858–1909), Scottish-born New Zealand cricketer * James Hume (magistrate) (1808–1862), British magistrate and political co ...

* Greg Jones,

* Nick Timoney,

* Luke Marshall,

and

Ireland national rugby union team The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Champi ...

* David O'Connor,

Jonny Murphy Jonny Murphy (born 6 February 1992) is a former professional rugby union player from Northern Ireland, who played hooker for Ulster (2015-17), Rotherham Titans (2017-18) and Connacht (2018-22). Early life Murphy was born in Belfast in 1992. ...

Connacht rugby union team Connacht Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Connachta) is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. Connacht competes in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Conn ...

Notable past players

* Tyrone Howe, Ireland and British and Irish Lions *

Simon Best Simon Best (born 11 February 1978) is a former Irish rugby union footballer. He played for Ulster Rugby, Ulster and was club captain in Ulster's 2005/06 Pro14, Celtic League winning season. Simon missed the final game of Ulster' successful cam ...

, Ireland * Rory Best,

and British and Irish Lions

Sources

External links

Banbridge RFC
{{Ulster Rugby Links Rugby union clubs in Northern Ireland Rugby union teams in Ireland Rugby clubs established in 1925 Rugby union clubs in County Down Senior Irish rugby clubs (Ulster)

RFC RFC may refer to: Computing * Request for Comments, a memorandum on Internet standards * Request for change, change management * Remote Function Call, in SAP computer systems * Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, a modification for Sid Meier's Civ ...