Mounts Bay RFC was a

Cornish rugby Rugby union in Cornwall ( kw, unyans rugbi) is Cornwall's most popular spectator sport with a large following. The followers of the national side are dubbed Trelawny's Army. In 1991 and 1999 Cornwall won the County Championship final played at ...

club formed in December 1999 and based in

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

, England, which folded in July 2009. Initially formed as an offshoot from Penzance & Newlyn RFC, the club operated as an independent club. Mounts Bay were promoted at the end of the 2007-08 season and competed in

National Division Two National One (last season known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Leagu ...

in the 2008-09 season. However, the club folded in the summer of 2009 due to financial problems and withdrew from the league structure altogether.

2006-07 season

Mounts Bay had a successful year as they were promoted to the National Leagues as champions of Southwest 1 with three games to play. They also reached two cup finals; on 11 April 2007 they lost 43-7 to

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

in the final the

CRFU Cornwall Cup The CRFU Cornwall Cup (currently sponsored by Tribute Ales) is an annual rugby union knock-out cup club competition organised by the Cornwall Rugby Football Union first played for in 1896 but only regularly since 1969. It is open for teams based ...

and on 15 April 2007, Bay made their only visit to

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

for the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup Final against former winners

Dunstablians Dunstablians Rugby Union Football Club are an amateur rugby union club based in Bedfordshire, who play their rugby in Midlands 3 East (South), an eight tier league in the English rugby union system. Their ground is located just outside nearby H ...

. They won the match 46-36.

2007-08 season

In their first season in the National Leagues, Mounts Bay finished first in National Division Three South and were again promoted, their eighth promotion in nine seasons, to play in

during the 2008-09 season.

Fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

Lee Jarvis was the league's top point scorer with 266 points. In addition to the league championship Mounts Bay also won the Cornwall Super Cup by defeating Launceston 45-17 on 24 March 2008.

2008-09 season

Mounts Bay's quick rise ended with their only relegation. It was soon followed by an AGM in July 2009 that confirmed they were to fold after the possibility of a

groundshare A groundshare, also known as a shared stadium or shared arena, is the principle of sharing a stadium between two local sports teams. This is usually done for the purpose of reducing the costs of either construction of two separate facilities and r ...

with

Redruth RFC Redruth RFC (established 1875) is a rugby union club from the town of Redruth, Cornwall, currently playing in the fourth tier of the English league system, National League 2 West. The club runs a number of men's teams including 1st XV (Natio ...

broke down and they were left with large debts and little assets.

Season summary

Club honours

Cornwall League 2 Counties 3 Cornwall (formerly known as Tribute Cornwall League 2) is an English level nine rugby union league for clubs based in Cornwall. The champions and runner-up are promoted to Counties 2 Cornwall (formerly Cornwall League 1); there is n ...

champions: 2000-01 * Cornwall 1 v Devon 1 promotion playoff winners: 2002–03 *

Tribute Cornwall/Devon Cornwall/Devon League (known as Tribute Cornwall/Devon League for sponsorship reasons) was an English level eight, rugby union league for clubs principally based in Cornwall and Devon. Following the reorganisation of the English rugby union le ...

champions: 2003-04 *Powergen Junior Vase semi-finalists: 2003-04 *

Western Counties West Counties 1 Western West (formerly known as Western Counties West for sponsorship reasons) is an English rugby union league. Originally a single division called Western Counties, in 1996 the division split into two regional leagues called Wester ...

champions: 2004-05 * South West Division 2 West champions: 2005-06 * South West Division 1 champions: 2006-07 * EDF Energy Intermediate Cup winners: 2006-07 * National League Division 3 South champions: 2007-08 * Cornwall Super Cup winners: 2007-08

Notable former players

* Lee Jarvis -

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

international. * Josh Matavesi -

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

international.

Notes

References

{{Rugby union in England Sport in Penzance Cornish rugby union teams English rugby union teams Rugby clubs established in 1999 Defunct English rugby union teams Cornish Pirates 1999 establishments in England Sports clubs disestablished in 2009