The RC Mainz 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 ...

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

from

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

, currently playing in 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 ...

History

Rugby in Mainz dates back to 1997, when a rugby department was formed in the ''1. FC Vorwärts Orient Mainz''. Two years later, in 1999, this rugby department formed the current RC Mainz.Rugby in Mainz
RCM website, accessed: 8 April 2010 The club competed at the third tier of German club rugby at the time, 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 ''Regi ...

. Oddly, it took part in two of the Regionalligas local divisions,

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

and

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. The city of Mainz is located in Rhineland-Palatinate, but just across the river from Hesse. In the 2001-02 season, the club celebrated its first success, promotion to the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga. In this league, it was able to survive for only one season, being promptly relegated back to the third division again. The team achieved promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga once more when it won the Regionalliga Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as the Regionalliga Hesse. The club was saved from relegation after its first season there when the league was enlarged and has since improved in its performance. The club suffered relegation in 2010 but bounced straight back, finishing runners-up in the new

3rd Liga South/West Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

and returning to the 2nd Bundesliga. A league reform in 2012 allowed the club promotion to the Bundesliga after the league was expanded from ten to 24 teams. RC finished third in their group in the 2012-13 season and qualified for the south/west division of the championship round, where it came eighth. The club was knocked out in the first round of the play-offs after losing 131–3 to

DSV 78 Hannover DSV 78 Hannover, founded as ''DFV Hannover'' in 1878, is Germany's oldest rugby club. The club played in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga under the name DSV 78/08 Ricklingen, having formed an on-the-field union with SV 08 Ricklingen, another club fro ...

. The club qualified for the play-offs to the DRV-Pokal in 2013–14, the second-tier competition in German rugby, where it was knocked out by SG Siemensstadt/Grizzlies in the first round. For the 2014–15 season the club entered the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga but was only able to qualify for the Liga-Pokal round where it came seventh and missed out on the play-offs. Mainz dropped back to the third tier for the following season.

Club honours

* Rugby-Regionalliga Rhineland-Palatinate ** Champions: 2002, 2004, 2007 * Rugby-Regionalliga Hessen ** Champions: 2007

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the club:RugbyWeb Ergebnisarchiv
rugbyweb.de - Results archive, accessed: 24 July 2012 * Until 2001, when the single-division Bundesliga was established, the season was divided in autumn and spring, a ''Vorrunde'' and ''Endrunde'', whereby the top teams of the Rugby-Bundesliga would play out the championship while the bottom teams together with the autumn 2nd Bundesliga champion would play for Bundesliga qualification. The remainder of the 2nd Bundesliga teams would play a spring round to determine the relegated clubs. Where two placing's are shown, the first is autumn, the second spring. In 2012 the Bundesliga was expanded from ten to 24 teams and the 2nd Bundesliga from 20 to 24 with the leagues divided into four regional divisions.

References

External links

*
Official website
*
RC Mainz club info at totalrugby.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mainz, RC German rugby union clubs Rugby clubs established in 1999 Rugby union in Rhineland-Palatinate 1999 establishments in Germany Rc