The FC St. Pauli Rugby is the

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

section of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St Pauli (), is a German professional football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. The football department is part of a larger sp ...

, based in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. The squad currently plays in the

Rugby-Bundesliga The Rugby-Bundesliga is the highest level of the league system for rugby union in Germany, organised by the German Rugby Federation. The league is predominantly amateur, with only one club in the league being officially a professional outfit, t ...

, the highest level of the German rugby league system. Other sports practised at St. Pauli are

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

. While the men's team has had limited success over the years, St. Pauli's women are one of the most successful teams in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, having reached every championship final from 1995 to 2008 and winning eight out of the fourteen.

History

St Pauli 's rugby department was formed in 1933 when two Jewish brothers, Otto and Paul Lang from Heidelberg, were forced to leave their club, the ''SV St. Georg'', and joined FC St Pauli. In April 1933, the FC St Pauli board called for the formation of a rugby team and the club's 6th football XI decided to switch codes and play rugby instead.Geschichte des Rugby im FC St Pauli
FC St Pauli website - History, accessed: 9 April 2010 It took the team over a year to achieve their first draw but it soon improved and won its first ''Nordmark'' championship, against bitter rival Hamburger SV Rugby. It repeated this success in 1938 and 1939. The club resumed playing rugby in 1947, at first against teams of the British occupation force in Germany, but soon in the ''Nordmark'' championship again, which it won uninterruptedly from 1948 to 1958. In the early 1960s, St Pauli faced strong opposition from local rival ''SV Polizei Hamburg'' and the ''Nordmark'' championship became a Hamburg-only competition after the last of the teams from

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

was dissolved. The club's men's team reached its only German championship final in 1964, when it lost 0-11 to

DSV 78 Hannover DSV 78 Hannover, founded as ''DFV Hannover'' in 1878, is Germany's oldest rugby club. The club played in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga under the name DSV 78/08 Ricklingen, having formed an on-the-field union with SV 08 Ricklingen, another club from ...

after having beaten favourites SC Neuenheim in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

in the semi-finals. FC St Pauli Rugby was one of the founding members of the new

in 1971 and, in the first three seasons, was a competitive side there. An ageing team and a slacking in the youth development led to the club's relegation in 1975, temporarily even setting a negative Bundesliga record with a 3-102 defeat against

TSV Victoria Linden The TSV Victoria Linden is a German rugby union club from the Linden suburb of Hannover, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. Apart from rugby, the club also offers other sports, such as triathlon and athletics. The club is Germany's record ...

.Geschichte des Rugby im FC St Pauli
FC St Pauli website - History - Part 2, accessed: 9 April 2010 Upon return to the Hamburg championship, the club faced strong competition from Hamburger SV,

Hamburger RC The Hamburger Rugby Club (HRC) is a German rugby union club from Hamburg, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. History ''HRC'' was formed on 6 June 1950, under the leadership of Emil Creydt. The year 1988 brought two important changes to the club. The men's team finally returned to the Rugby-Bundesliga, and a women's team was formed. The team managed to survive for only two seasons in the Bundesliga and earned another record defeat against Victoria Linden, this time a 0-113. Instead, the club's women's team begun to shine from 1995 onwards, earning its first German championship that year. While the women's team continued its success throughout the years, winning eight German championships until 2008, the men's side was able to establish itself on the second level of German rugby, the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga, where it plays as a mid-table side.Geschichte des Rugby im FC St Pauli
FC St Pauli website - History - Part 3, accessed: 9 April 2010 In the season 2011/12 the 1st men's team won the title of the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga North/East. On the first of May 2012 they competed in a final against the winner of the second tier league in the south Frankfurt 1880 II. The game was played in Hamburg and St. Pauli lost 22:32. The title in the north earned St. Pauli the right for a promotion to the highest level of rugby played in Germany the

. St. Pauli finished second in their group in the 2012-13 season and qualified for the north/east division of the championship round, where it came fourth. The club was knocked out in the first round of the play-offs after losing 30–13 to

SC 1880 Frankfurt The Sport-Club Frankfurt 1880 e.V. (or SC 1880 Frankfurt) is a German sports club from Frankfurt am Main. The club is mainly known for its rugby union team, which currently plays in the Rugby-Bundesliga, the highest level of the league system for ...

. In 2013–14 the team qualified for the championship round and the play-offs once more, losing to SC Neuenheim in the first round. In the 2014–15 season the club finished sixth in the north-east championship group but was knocked out of the first round of the play-offs after a 78–0 loss to

RG Heidelberg The RG Heidelberg (''german: Rudergesellschaft Heidelberg'', literally "Heidelberg Rowing Club") is a German rugby union club from Heidelberg, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. Apart from rugby, the club also offers the sport of rowing. ...

Club honours

Men

* German rugby union championship ** Runners up: 1964 * German rugby union junior cup ** Champions: 1992, 2002 ** Runners up: 1993, 1994 * Nordmark/Hamburg championship ** Champions: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1948–58, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1967–71 *

2nd Rugby-Bundesliga The 2. Rugby-Bundesliga is the second-highest level of Germany's Rugby union league system, organised by the German Rugby Federation. Its set below the Rugby-Bundesliga, the top-tier of German rugby, and above the Rugby-Regionalliga, the third ti ...

** Division champions: 2002, 2012 ** Division runners up: 2005, 2011

Women

* German rugby union championship ** Champions: 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 ** Runners up: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2012 * German sevens championship ** Champions: 2000, 2001, 2002 ** Runners up: 2007

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the club:RugbyWeb Ergebnisarchiv
rugbyweb.de - Results archive, accessed: 24 July 2012

Men

* Until 2001, when the single-division Bundesliga was established, the season was divided in autumn and spring, a ''Vorrunde'' and ''Endrunde'', whereby the top teams of the Rugby-Bundesliga would play out the championship while the bottom teams together with the autumn 2nd Bundesliga champion would play for Bundesliga qualification. The remainder of the 2nd Bundesliga teams would play a spring round to determine the relegated clubs. Where two placing's are shown, the first is autumn, the second spring. In 2012 the Bundesliga was expanded from ten to 24 teams and the 2nd Bundesliga from 20 to 24 with the leagues divided into four regional divisions.

Women

Rugby internationals

's 2006–08 European Nations Cup campaign, FC St Pauli's captain Friedrich Michau was called up for the national team. Horst Wohler, with 30 internationals, is the club's most capped player.

References

External links

*
Official website
*
Official website of the rugby department
*
FC St. Pauli Rugby club info at totalrugby.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Pauli Rugby, FC German rugby union clubs Rugby clubs established in 1933 Rugby union in Hamburg

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

1933 establishments in Germany