Rugby-Welfen Braunschweig is a German
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 from
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, currently playing in the
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 ...
. The team is part of a larger
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 ...
,
TuRa Braunschweig, which apart from rugby also offers other sports like
athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
,
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...
and
pétanque
Pétanque (, ; oc, petanca, , also or ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports, along with raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, lawn bowls, and crown green bowling. In all of these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls ...
. The team is named after the
House of Welf.
History
Post SV Braunschweig
The history of the club's rugby section goes back to 27 January 1954. On that date, the rugby section of ''Post SV Braunschweig'', a large multi-sports club, was founded. The club played mostly in regional lower-tier competitions, but in 1991 won their first (and only) promotion into 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 ...
, but suffered relegation again after just one season at the top-level.
Welfen SC Braunschweig
In the late 1990s, Post SV Braunschweig ran into financial problems, which eventually led to the club's dissolution in 2001. Due to this, the rugby section separated from the parent club and joined ''Welfen SC Heidberg'', another local sports club, in 1999. The club, based in the
Heidberg district of Braunschweig and founded in 1973, later changed its name into ''Welfen SC Braunschweig''.
After several seasons in the
Rugby-Regionalliga
The Rugby Regionalliga is the third-highest level of Germany's Rugby union league system, organised by the German Rugby Federation. It is set below the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga and is organised in eight regional divisions.
Since 2010, the ''Regiona ...
, Welfen SC won promotion back to the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga in 2011. In the 2014–15 season the club finished second in the north-east Liga-Pokal group and was knocked out by TuS 95 Düsseldorf in the quarter finals of the play-offs.
TuRa Braunschweig
In 2014 the rugby players of Welfen SC decided to leave the club again due to being dissatisfied with the condition of the club's grounds. On 1 January 2015 they joined ''Turn- und Rasensportverein Braunschweig'' (short: TuRa Braunschweig), but continue to compete under the name Rugby-Welfen Braunschweig. TuRa Braunschweig had been founded as the city's second gymnastics club (after
MTV Braunschweig) in 1865. The club's athletes have also won several German championships in other sports such as
acrobatic gymnastics and
Steinstossen
Steinstossen is the Swiss variant of stone put, a competition in throwing a heavy stone. Practiced among the alpine population since prehistoric times, it is recorded to have taken place in Basel in the 13th century. During the 15th century, it i ...
.
Recent seasons
Recent seasons of the club:
RugbyWeb Ergebnisarchiv
rugbyweb.de - Results archive, accessed: 27 August 2014
References
External links
*
Official website
*
Official website of TuRa Braunschweig
*
Welfen SC Braunschweig at totalrugby.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braunschweig, Welfen
German rugby union clubs
Rugby clubs established in 1954
Welfen
The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meus ...
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
Organisations based in Braunschweig
1954 establishments in West Germany