Liverpool St Helens Football Club is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 its m ...

team formed from the merger of Liverpool Football Club and St. Helens RUFC. The institution is not to be confused with either

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

(playing

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 ...

) or St. Helens (playing

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 ...

History

The club's first match took place in 1857 when old boys from

Rugby school Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

challenged local boys to a game under their school rules. Liverpool Football Club were then formed, the oldest open rugby club in the world. In 1871, the club provided four of the England team that played Scotland in the first rugby international. On 5 February 1877 another Liverpool player,

Edward Kewley Edward Kewley (20 June 1852 – 17 April 1940) was an English sportsman who played rugby union for England and also played first-class cricket for Lancashire. He captained England three times, and was the first captain to be drawn from the nor ...

, was captain of England when they played Ireland in what was the first 15-a-side international. In 1914 the club had three international captains in the first XV,

Ronnie Poulton-Palmer Ronald 'Ronnie' William Poulton (later sometimes Poulton-Palmer) (12 September 1889 – 5 May 1915) was an English rugby union footballer, who captained . He was killed in the First World War during the Second Battle of Ypres. Born in nort ...

(England), F.H. Turner (Scotland) and R.A. Lloyd (Ireland). Other internationals to play for Liverpool include

Fran Cotton Francis Edward Cotton (born 3 January 1947) is a former rugby union prop forward who played for England and the British Lions. His clubs included Coventry R.F.C. and Sale. After retiring, he remained in rugby administration and founded a clo ...

Maurice Colclough Maurice John Colclough (2 September 1953 – 27 January 2006) was an international rugby union player. He was selected for the 1980 British Lions tour to South Africa and the 1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand, playing in all four inte ...

, Mike Slemen and Kevin Simms. St Helens RUFC was founded in 1919 as St Helens Old Boys, the original membership being predominantly made up of former pupils of Cowley School. Internationals who played for the club include Alan 'Ned' Ashcroft, John Horton,

Nigel Heslop Nigel John Heslop (born 4 December 1963) is an English former rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played representative level rugby union (RU) for England, and at club level for Orrell R.U ...

and the current club President Ray French. Liverpool and St Helens merged in 1986 and played at Moss Lane which had been the St Helens club's ground. In the early years of the merger the club had two seasons in National Division One split by one season in Division Two. During this time internationals

Dewi Morris Dewi Morris (born ) is a former rugby union footballer, who played scrum half for England. Morris was born in Crickhowell, Breconshire, Wales, and graduated from Crewe & Alsager College. He made his England debut in 1988, as a twenty-four yea ...

and Simon Mason played for Liverpool St Helens. But afterwards it sank to Division Four and spent virtually the whole of the 1990s coming to terms with the professional era.

Club Honours

* Lancashire Cup winners (5): 1977, 1979, 1984, 1990, 1996 * North Division 2 West champions: 2006-07

Former Internationals from Liverpool St Helens F.C.

''Source for below: * John Clayton 1871 * Arthur Lyon 1871 *

Frank Tobin Frank Tobin CBE was a rugby union international who represented England in the first international rugby match in 1871. Early life Tobin was born in Liverpool on 23 September 1849. He was educated at Rugby School where he played football usin ...

1871 *

1874 * Hon. Sidney Parker 1874 * J. R. Hay Gordon 1875 * C. W. H. Clark 1876 * C. L. Verelst 1876 * Charles Touzel 1877 *

Henry Springmann Henry Springmann (1859–1936) was a rugby union international who represented England from 1879 to 1887. Early life Henry Springmann was born on 1859 in Liverpool.Marshall, Francis, ''Football; the Rugby union game'', p404-405, (1892) (London ...

1879 *

Harold Dingwall Bateson Harold Dingwall Bateson (2 May 1855 – 29 October 1927) was an English rugby union international player. Personal history Bateson was born in Liverpool, Lancashire. He was the son of William Gandy Bateson and Agnes Dingwall Bateson (née Blaiki ...

1879 *

Arthur Kemble Arthur Twiss Kemble (3 February 1862 – 13 March 1925) was an English sportsman who played international rugby union for England and first-class cricket with Lancashire. Kemble, a wicket-keeper, made his first-class debut in 1885 but had to wa ...

1885 *G. G. Allen 1897 * W. B. Stoddart 1897 * R. Pierce 1898 * W. Mortimer 1899 * C. E. Allen 1900 *

John Strand-Jones John Strand-Jones (2 December 1877 – 3 April 1958) was a Welsh rugby union player, who represented the Wales national rugby union team on five occasions in 1902 and 1903. His profession was in the clergy of the Anglican Church. Life Strand- ...

1902 * Reginald Spooner 1903 *H. J. Knox 1904 * L. A. N. Slocock 1907 * G. Leather 1907 * G. Pinion 1909 * M. G. Garry 1909 * Ronald Poulton-Palmer 1909 * A. W. Angus 1910 * R. A. Lloyd 1910 * Edward O'Donovan Crean, 1910 Crean was part of the first official British and Irish Lions team that toured South Africa in 1910 although he never represented his country. * F. H. Turner 1911 * A. F. Blakiston 1920 * E. J. Massey 1925 * W. Thomas 1927 * H. A. Fry 1933 * A. A. Brown 1938 * M. Regan 1953 * R. Higgins 1954 * A. Ashcroft 1956 * K. R. F. Bearne 1960 * R. J. French 1961 * T. J. Brophy 1964 * E. L. Rudd 1965 * F. E. Cotton 1971 * M. C. Beese 1972 * D. Roughley 1973 * M. A. C. Slemen 1976 * J. P. Horton 1978 * M. J. Colclough 1982 *C. Jones 1983 * K. G. Simms 1985 * C. D. Morris 1988 * N. J. Heslop 1990 * S. G. Mason 1996 * N. Tchakoute 2001 * J. Keulemans 2001 * B. Botha 2006 LSHFC-gates

References

External links

Official site
{{Coord, 53, 28, 15.02, N, 2, 46, 44.23, W, scale:3125_region:GB, display=title Premiership Rugby teams Rugby clubs established in 1857 Sport in St Helens, Merseyside English rugby union teams 1857 establishments in England