The Eastern Rhinos Rugby League Football Club is a British

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club based in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, in the county of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. Their first team plays in the South Premier Division of the

Rugby League Conference The Rugby League Conference (RLC) (also known as the Co-operative Rugby League Conference as a result of sponsorship from The Co-operative Group), was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England, ...

. Eastern Rhinos A-side play in the London League and Rhinos run a youth section with teams for boys aged 6 through to U18s. They train hard and play harder.

Club history

The club was formed in 1992 from the successful Civil Service South East Team and began life on the

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

coast as ''Felixstowe Eastern Rugby League Football Club''. Due to the wide catchment area of players' homes the club moved to the county town of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

in time for the 1995 - 1996 season and were elected to the London Amateur Rugby League. The club based itself at Ipswich RUFC in 1995, a club of 125 years standing where Felixstowe Eastern became ''Ipswich Rhinos'' in honour of the South African national side the Rhinos. The summer of 1997 saw the birth of the Southern Conference League, which the Rhinos also competed in, and committed themselves to. With no formal winter games to play the club took on friendly fixtures during these months. In 1998 the SCL became the

. Ipswich Rhinos finished fifth out of a total of 15 teams. The club continues to play in the RLC and in 2005 advanced to the new South Premier division, fielding a second team in the London League. They also launched a feeder club, ''Colchester Romans'', who also played in the London League. In their first competitive season the Romans reached the Grand Final and successfully applied to join the Rugby League Conference in their own right. In 2006 Colchester entered the RLC in their own right and the two clubs joined their second teams together to form the London League team ''Eastern Raiders''. In 2007 the Rhinos finished fourth in the South Premier in what was a strong and competitive division. The club became ''Eastern Rhinos'' for the 2010 season to consolidate all their teams under one banner and based themselves permanently at Colchester.

Club honours

* RLC Eastern Division: 1999, 2001, 2004

External links

Conference official siteLondon League official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colchester Rugby League Conference teams Sport in Colchester Rugby clubs established in 1992 1992 establishments in England Rugby league teams in Suffolk Rugby league teams in Essex English rugby league teams