London Irish RFC is a professional

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 ...

club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

, the European Champions Cup and

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

. While playing in the Championship in 2016–17 and 2018–19, it also played in the British and Irish Cup and RFU Championship Cup. The club played home games at the

Madejski Stadium The Madejski Stadium (currently known as the Select Car Leasing Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a Association football, football stadium in Reading, Berkshire, Reading. It is the home of Reading F.C., Reading Football Club, who play in the E ...

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

, for twenty years, before moving for the 2020–21 season to the Gtech Community Stadium in Brentford,

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...

. The club was founded in 1898 following the creation of London Scottish and

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seaso ...

for the same reason, allowing Irishmen the chance to play rugby with fellow countrymen in the English Capital. London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, the Powergen Cup (now the

Premiership Rugby Cup The Premiership Rugby Cup is an English rugby union knockout cup competition for teams in Premiership Rugby. It was created in 2018 to replace the Anglo-Welsh Cup after the withdrawal of the Welsh regions. History The Premiership Rugby Cup was ...

), and reached the 2009 English Premiership final, narrowly losing 10–9 to Leicester Tigers at

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team plays ...

. In the 2007–08 season, the team came close to a place in the Heineken Cup Final, losing out to Stade Toulousain 15–21 in the semi-final at

History

Formation and Early Years

London Irish was the last club to be formed in England by working and student exiles from the home countries, following London Scottish in 1878 and

in 1885. The first game took place on 1 October 1898 against the former Hammersmith club at Herne Hill Athletic Ground, with London Irish winning 8–3. The team that season benefited from the early recruitment of vet and Irish international Louis Magee. He became essential in the early years of the club along with club captain R.S Dyas in putting the team on the map and having regular fixtures between other London based teams.

War and Conflict

The turn of the new century was a great time for London Irish with the club firmly solidified in the London Club Roster but this would be some of the last years of normality for the team. With the commencement of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, many of the players enlisted with Irish Battalions in their homeland for deployment in mainland Europe. In 1916, remaining players and members returned to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to fight in the Easter Rising and many who joined regiments did not return. It is unknown how many were lost with a connection to the club. Following the formation of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

in 1923, those who fought in both battles returned to the club which saw a overhaul of the club over the remainder of the decade, reviving the team and its influence for a new beginning. In the years that followed, Irish made strides to playing competition outside of Greater London with matches against teams such as Leicester and

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. This however was short lived with the commencement of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

with players and members again being displaced across the continent, many of which elected not to return following the end of the war. 9 of the players who played in the 1938–39 season died in the conflict. The Club's then playing ground located in Sunbury-on-Thames was acquired by Ministry for Agriculture to be used as a site to grow food for the war-torn capital. Because of the state of the playing field after the war, games were temporarily held at

Rectory Field Rectory Field is a sports ground in Blackheath in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in south-east London. It was developed in the 1880s by Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company and became the home ground of rugby union team Blackhe ...

in Blackheath.

Post-war Years

The years that followed got off to a rocky beginning. Player numbers weren't what they used to be as former members elected not to move back to London and this made it difficult to front a starting XV. The year that followed brought in the Winter of 1946, one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom. Rectory Field was frozen for most the winter meaning Irish missed matches in the season. Things picked up with the arrival of new captain, Des O'Brien and a number of other key players, and in 1948, London Irish celebrated their 50th anniversary and the most successful season yet for the club. In the 1950s, the club thrived fielding teams most weeks and in 1951 they became the first club to host touring Italian team Roma. On September 9th, 1959, Irish officially returned to Sunbury and had a place to call home, dubbed ''The Avenue''. They performed a record-breaking season where they didn't lose a single game. The success of the 1960s for the London Irish was mixed, with many good wins but also a number of defeats. Fixtures improved and the club played against many famous teams which changed the attitude of the training and playing, and in the seventies, London Irish became a force to be reckoned with, finishing first in the London Division of the Rugby Football Union in the 1976/77 season. Pre-season tours became popular and in 1977, the London Irish made history in South Africa when they became the first touring side to play a host of mixed race teams.

Professional Era

Madejski Stadium , London Irish vs Toulon - panoramio (2)

Since the professional era began in August 1995, London Irish has only lifted one piece of major silverware, winning the Powergen Cup in 2002 in a match against Northampton at Twickenham that saw the club win 38-7. 75,000 people attended the match seeing the exiles win in what is regarded as one of the most successful days in the club's history. London Irish enjoyed success in Europe in 2005-06 when they reached the final of the Challenge Cup, only to be defeated by Gloucester 36-34 in what was an extremely close game at Twickenham. In 2013, Irish was taken over by a consortium led by Mick Crossan, executive chairman of

Powerday Powerday is a London based recycling and waste management firm. Mick Crossan owns 85% of the company. They are the current sponsors of the London Irish rugby club. Crossan is also the majority shareholder and club president of the rugby club. The ...

, a London based Recycling and Waste Management firm. Powerday would go on to be one of the club's main sponsors.

Academy

London Irish manages its own academy, with players such as Tom Homer,

Nick Kennedy Nick Kennedy (born 19 August 1982) is a retired English rugby union player and former Director of Rugby at London Irish. He played Lock for England, London Irish, Toulon and Harlequins. His uncle Duncan Kennedy is a BBC news correspondent. K ...

Topsy Ojo Temitope "Topsy" Ojo (born 28 July 1985) is an English rugby union player for London Irish , and has represented England at International level. He is London Irish's all-time leading try scorer, with 73 tries in all competitions. Career Lon ...

, Anthony Watson, Brothers

Delon Armitage Delon Anthony Armitage (born 15 December 1983) is a rugby union coach and former player who played at wing or fullback for Lyon OU and is capped for England. He also occasionally played centre. Armitage started out at London Irish and Toulon. H ...

& Guy Armitage,

Alex Corbisiero Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peo ...

and Jonathan Joseph having gone on to play for the senior side and be internationally capped. Ojo retired at the end of the 2018–19 season having made 301 appearances for the club despite clearly having no Irish heritage nor ancestry.

Stadium

Since the 2020–21 season, London Irish play at the Gtech Community Stadium, in Brentford, Greater London. The stadium is owned by

Brentford F.C. Brentford Football Club is a professional football club in Brentford, West London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, having gained promotion via the playoffs at the end of the 2020–21 Champi ...

who also play their home games there. The ground is a 17,250 all-seater capacity stadium which opened in 2020. All London Irish home matches are generally played at Brentford. Prior to 2020, the club played at the

for 20 seasons between

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and March 2020 when the 2019–20 season was suspended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Due to delays owing to the aforementioned pandemic, Brentford Stadium was running behind its scheduled opening date. Irish made the decision to play its remaining games when possible at

Harlequin Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the '' zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian '' commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditional ...

Twickenham Stoop Twickenham Stoop Stadium (informally referred to as The Stoop) is a sports stadium located in south-west London, England. The stadium is home to Harlequins rugby union team, who play in the Gallagher Premiership. The stadium has a capacity ...

as they could not return to Reading. The Exiles had previously played at The Stoop in the 1999–2000 Season before moving to the Madejski Stadium. London Irish fans at the Madejski stadium

London Irish fans at the Madejski stadium

The largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against

London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

on 15 March 2008 during the 2007–08 season. The crowd of 23,790 was also the highest attendance for a regular season Premiership Rugby match until December 2008. On 12 March 2016 London Irish played their first home Premiership match abroad, and also the first-ever Premiership match outside England, when they travelled to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to face Saracens at the

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...

' Red Bull Arena in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

. On 15 August 2016, the club announced its intention to return to London and that it was in formal discussions with

Hounslow London Borough Council Hounslow London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Hounslow in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. History There have previously been a number ...

to play at Brentford's new stadium. On 10 February 2017, the club confirmed that the council had approved its application to use the stadium for rugby, effectively allowing them to move into the new stadium from its opening season. This was later confirmed.

London Irish Amateur Rugby Football Club

The club also hosts London Irish Amateur RFC (a separate legal entity) for non-professionals to allow them to improve in Rugby. The team plays at the location of London Irish's training ground and offices, Hazelwood in Sunbury. Some players such as Justin Bishop and Kieran Campbell have gone through the ranks to play for London Irish professional team.

Mascot

Digger

Digger is an Irish Wolfhound and official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of London Irish. He has an important job in providing support to the club. On 30 May 2003 Digger won the "Best Mascot" award in

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

at the Premier Rugby Marketing Awards. On 23 April 2006, Digger ran the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically he ...

raising money for Spinal Research. He finished the marathon in a time of 6 hours 39 minutes 31 seconds.

Others

Madejski Stadium , London Irish vs Toulon

Digger was joined by his cousin, Duggie, from the 2006–07 season. Much taller and much slower, Duggie has proved popular with younger children attending matchdays. As well as the mascot characters, there is also a real Irish Wolfhound, Mr Doyle, who also attends the home games. Before Mr Doyle, his Great Uncle, Jumbo, attended home games before Jumbo retired and eventually died.

Rivalries

London Irish have rivalries in the Greater London area, mainly with Harlequins and Saracens who are now, thanks to Irish moving back to West London, are able to have local derbies. Gtech Community Stadium's location makes it less than 2 miles to the

. They also maintain a friendly rivalry with London Scottish of who they were teamed with as another exile team.

Current kit

The kit is currently supplied by BLK. The green home kit is made from Exotek fabric and features gel grippers on the front and gripper tape at the seams. The jersey also features a sectioned crew neck, club colour detailing on the sleeve and a silicone gel finish on the club crest. The club's principal sponsor

, appears on the front centre on a broad red lined white stripe. Above this, the club's crest appears on the left chest and 9 Group on the right chest. Other club sponsors Pump Technology and Keltbray appear on the back. The playing shorts are plain featuring only the logo of the club and manufacturer. The away kit is white and features a similar design with Powerday appearing on a broad green stripe. London Irish recently announced a new elite partnership with Just Clear, an environmentally friendly British house clearance and rubbish removal service in readiness for new Premiership season. London Irish CEO, Mark Bensted, welcomed the arrival of a new partnership to the Club’s commercial portfolio, commenting: “I’m delighted Just Clear are joining the London Irish family". Such news potentially points to London Irish's consolidation of their Premiership status as they were relegated in the 2018-19 season.

Season summaries

Gold background denotes champions
Silver background denotes runners-up
Pink background denotes relegated * Finished first in pool but did not progress to the quarter-final. Their place was taken by Brive

Club honours

Major Honours

**''Runners–Up: (1) 2008–09'' *

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when ...

**Champions: (2) 2016–17, 2018–19 *

**''Runners–Up: (1) 2005–06'' *

**Champions: (1) 2001–02 **''Runners–Up: (2) 1979–80, 2022–22'' *

Surrey Cup The Surrey Cup is an annual rugby union knock-out club competition organized by the Surrey Rugby Football Union. The original cup competition was first played for back in 1890, the inaugural winners being Lennox, but was discontinued in 1909, ...

**Champions: (4) 1980–81, 1981–82, 1985–86, 1986–87 * Premiership Rugby Sevens Series **Champions: (1)

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Friendly

Middlesex Sevens The Middlesex Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held annually at Twickenham stadium in London, England until 2011. It was first held in 1926, and started by Dr J.A. Russell-Cargill, a London-based Scot.Bath, ''Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p82 Th ...

**Champions: (1) 2009 * Cunningham Duncombe Series **Champions: (1) 2016

Current squad

The London Irish squad for the 2022–23 season is:

Academy squad

The London Irish academy squad is:

Club staff

First Team Coaching *Director of Rugby:

Declan Kidney Declan Kidney (born 20 October 1959) is an Irish rugby union coach. He was the head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team from 2008 to 2013, where he won the 2009 Six Nations with a Grand Slam, winning the 2009 IRB Coach of the Year aw ...

*Head coach:

Les Kiss Les Kiss (born 9 December 1964) is an Australian professional rugby union coach who is the head coach of London Irish in the Gallagher Premiership. He is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the Brisbane Rugby League and ...

*Assistant Coach Brad Davis *Assistant Coach:

Declan Danaher Declan Danaher (born 11 January 1980) is a former rugby union footballer who played at back row for London Irish in the Aviva Premiership. He is currently Defence coach for the same team. Club career Danaher joined London Irish in 1999, making ...

*Assistant Coach: Corniel van Zyl *Assistant Forwards Coach:

Ross McMillan Peter Ross McMillan (born 2 June 1987) is a professional rugby union player. His position is hooker. McMillan has previously played professionally for Nottingham, Gloucester, Moseley, Coventry, Birmingham & Solihull, Northampton, Bristol and ...

*Assistant Forwards Coach:

Jon Fisher Jon Fisher (born January 19, 1972) is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and writer. Jon sold his own Non-fungible token, NFTs before founding software company, ViciNFT. As a co-inventor and co-founding CEO, Fisher built three companies including Bh ...

*Team Manager: Alex James *Assistant Team Manager: Will Crowley-Johnson *Head of Strength and Conditioning: Robert Palmer *Head of Analysis: James Molyneux *Senior Performance Analyst: Matt Carpinter *Senior Performance Analyst: Richard Green Academy *Academy Manager: Patrick O'Grady *Academy Backs Coach: James Lightfoot-Brown *Academy Forwards Coach:

*AASE Manager: Richard Pryor *Academy Performance Analyst: Brendan O'Shea

Notable former players

Rugby World Cup

The following are players which have represented their countries at the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

, whilst playing for London Irish:

References

Notes

External links

*
Official Supporters Club WebsiteSunbury CentreOrder of The Odd-Shaped BallThe CraicLondon Irish Amateur Rugby Football ClubERC Rugby London IrishPremiership Rugby Official Website
{{London Irish squad Premiership Rugby teams English rugby union teams Rugby clubs established in 1898 Sport in Reading, Berkshire Rugby union in Berkshire Rugby union in Surrey Rugby union clubs in London 1898 establishments in England Irish diaspora in England Irish diaspora sports clubs in the United Kingdom