San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Football Club is a
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 ...
club based in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. SFGG's first side competes in the
Northern California Rugby Football Union
The Northern California Rugby Football Union (NCRFU) is the Geographical Union (GU) for Adult rugby union teams in Northern California, as well as northern Nevada. The NCRFU is part of USA Rugby.
The NCRFU is traditionally one of the strongest un ...
's Men's Division I, Women's Division II, and Pacific Rugby Premiership. The SFGG Youth Program includes high school Varsity, Junior Varsity, Frosh-Soph teams as well as U-12, U-10 and U-8 (non-contact) youth teams. SFGG also fields nationally competitive
Rugby Sevens squads over the summer. The SFGG Old Boys team, the Señors, feature in occasional matches.
History
SFGG Rugby was formed in 2001 from the merger of the San Francisco Rugby Club and the Golden Gate Rugby Club. The club won the 2009 and 2011 Rugby Super League championships defeating Life University in the final both times, by 23–13 and 20–5 respectively.
Ray Sheeran Field
San Francisco Golden Gate RFC leased land and a former PX building from the city of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
on
Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...
in the summer of 2005 for the purpose of building a field and clubhouse. The facility was opened in November 2005 with a Grand Banquet/Dedication featuring former All Black captain
Reuben Thorne
Reuben David Thorne (born 2 January 1975) is a New Zealand rugby union player, and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks.
Professional Career and the All Blacks Super 12
Playing as a flanker, Thorne first appeared in the Super 12 ...
and former US Eagle captain
Dan Lyle
Daniel Joseph Lyle (born September 28, 1970) is an American former rugby union player who played for the United States national rugby union team 45 times from 1994 to 2003, serving as U.S. captain in 24 of those matches. Lyle played number eigh ...
. The pitch was formerly named for former club President and current Director Greg Rocca. In March 2011, the pitch was renamed to Ray Sheeran Field.
Ray Sheeran Field hosted the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 USA Rugby National Club Sevens Championships.
Club honors
*Pacific Rugby Premiership
** Champions: 2014
*
USA Rugby Elite Cup
The USA Rugby Elite Cup was an American 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 ...
** Champions: 2013
*
Rugby Super League
** Champions: 2009,
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
** Runner-up: 2004, 2010
** Semifinalists: 2007
* US Men's Division I
**Semifinalists: 1996, 2000, 2010
** Finalists: 1999
Notable players
Current players
''Players with international caps in bold.''
*
Daniel La Prevotte
*
Aaron Latzke
*
Saimone Laulaupeaalu
*
Shaun Paga Shaun is an anglicized spelling of the Irish name Seán. Alternative spellings include Shawn, Sean and Shawne.
Notable persons with the given name include:
People
*Shaun (musician) (born 1990), South Korean musician
*Shaun (YouTuber), British vid ...
*
Danny Barrett — flanker
*
Patrick Latu —
San Francisco Rush captain
*
Volney Rouse
Volney Rouse (born December 6, 1983) is an American rugby union player. Rouse plays his club rugby for San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club, and also played for the San Francisco Rush in 2016.
Domestic
Rouse played collegiate rugby at St. Mary' ...
— flyhalf
*
Mile Pulu
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...
— center
*
Tai Enosa
Tai Enosa (born 1 October 1989, in American Samoa) is an American rugby union player who plays fly-half for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby (MLR).
Professional rugby career
Enosa has played for the United States national unde ...
— fullback
Former players
Internationally capped players are in bold.
* Brian Barnard
* Nathan Couch
*
Tony Daly
Tony Daly (born 7 March 1966 in West Pymble, Australia) is a former Australian rugby union footballer who represented Australia in 41 Test matches. He played for Eastern Suburbs, Gordon, Randwick, Manly, Brothers and Saracens at prop. He rep ...
* Philippe Farner
* Robbie Flynn
* Oloseti Fifita
* Fred Forster
* Jay Hansen
* Britt Howard
*
Mike MacDonald
Michael MacDonald (born June 26, 1987) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens from 2022 to 2 ...
*
Samu Manoa
Samu Manoa (born March 5, 1985) is an American rugby union player who plays for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby (MLR).
Manoa was described in 2014 by ESPNscrum.com as "perhaps the finest No. 8 playing the game in the northern hemisp ...
* Fifita Mounga
*
Jone Naqica Jone may refer to:
* ''Jone'' (opera), an 1858 opera in four acts by Errico Petrella
*Jonê County, a county in Gansu, People's Republic of China
*Jone Pinto (born 1991), Brazilian footballer
*DJ JoN-E
Johney Brar (born July 25 in Toronto, Ont ...
*
Folau Niua
Folau Niua (born January 27, 1985) is an American rugby union former player. He played fly-half for the United States national rugby sevens team from 2011 to 2022, and holds the U.S. record for most tournament appearances with over 65 caps.
Earl ...
*
Thretton Palamo
Thretton Palamo (born September 22, 1988) is an American rugby union player who plays centre for Old Glory DC of Major League Rugby (MLR).
When he appeared in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he became the youngest ever player to have played in the Rugb ...
— center
*
Shawn Pittman
Shawn Pittman (born January 22, 1988 in Bellingham, Washington, United States) is an American rugby union coach and former player. Pittman played Prop (rugby union), prop for Old Puget Sound Beach and the United States national rugby union team ...
* Naima Reddick
* Mark Scharrenberg
*
Matt Sherman
Matt Sherman (born October 29, 1978 in San Francisco, California) is a former American rugby union fly-half and current coach of the Army men's rugby team at the United States Military Academy. His ‘21/‘22 Army West Point squad won the D1A Nat ...
* Paul Still
* Grant Wells
* Jay Wilkerson
Sponsorship
Notable primary sponsors include
CallidusCloud
The SAP Sales Cloud, formerly CallidusCloud, is an enterprise software and software as a service (SaaS) company headquartered in Dublin, California. The company markets services for sales effectiveness, sales management and sales execution ( ...
and Canterbury of New Zealand. The club also has several secondary sponsorships from local and regional businesses.
Official SFGG Sponsors
/ref>
References
External links
*
{{California sports
Golden gate
The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by th ...
Rugby clubs established in 2001
2001 establishments in California