The Las Vegas Blackjacks Rugby Football Club (Las Vegas Blackjacks RFC) was a

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 ...

team based in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. They were members of the

Southern California Rugby Football Union The Southern California Rugby Football Union (SCRFU) is the Geographical Union (GU) governing body within USA Rugby that governs adult rugby union teams in Southern California, the Las Vegas metropolitan area, Arizona, and New Mexico. The SCRFU in ...

and competed in the Senior Men's 1st (Red) Division of

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of ru ...

. The Blackjacks finished in fourth place at the USA Rugby Nationals - Division I Tournament and won their first SCRFU Regular Season title in 2008. The Blackjacks won the regular season again in 2009 and made it to the National Final where they lost to the Gentlemen of Aspen. Redemption was found in 2010 as the boys claimed the nations top prize with a win in the national final against Belmont Shore.

History

The Las Vegas Rugby Club was established in 1976, following a newspaper advertisement to recruit players for a local rugby club. The Blackjacks have reached the National Final 4 competition three times since 2006 and were the national runner-up in 2009. The club finally reached the mountain top as they edged Belmont Shore for the 2010 National Championship. In 2010, LVRC signed a player development agreement with

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

side,

Montpellier Hérault RC Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

. The agreement with Montpellier will have the French side sending young players to play with LVRC during France's offseason, while allowing amateur players with the Blackjacks the opportunity to play top-level professional rugby.

Season-by-season record

''Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, D = Draws, Pts = Points, PF = Points for, PA = Points against''

Honors

Club Championships

*USA Rugby Premier Division **Champions - 2010 **2nd Place - 2009 **4th Place - 2006 * SCRFU Division I **Gainy Cup Champions - 2009 **Regular Season Champions - 2008 **Playoff Champions - 2008

References

External links