Tiverton Rugby Club is a
rugby union club based in the town of
Tiverton, Devon, England. The club plays at Coronation Field, and as of the 2014–15 season competes in the level seven
Tribute 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 ...
league and the Devon Intermediate Cup. It is considered to be the oldest rugby club in
Devon.
History
Tiverton Rugby Club was the opposing team in the first recorded rugger match played by the boys of
Blundell's School in 1868.
According to the club's website, the game was played under the school's own rules: with twenty players in each team, no flags, a referee and two umpires and it was known as the "carrying game".
The team adopted the standard
rugby rules
The laws of Rugby Union are defined by World Rugby (originally the International Rugby Football Board, and later International Rugby Board) and dictate how the game should be played. They are enforced by a referee, generally with the help of two ...
in 1870, following which it played not only against the school but against teams from nearby towns such as
Crediton
Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motorway ...
,
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
and
Wellington.
During the 1880s the club was considered to be one of the top clubs in the
South West
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
,
and won the inaugural Devon Rugby Football Union annual competition in 1888.
Since then, the club's website reports, the sport has at one time almost been forgotten in the town while at other times there have been as many as four town clubs competing against each other.
In the 1980s the club was three times champions of the pre-league Devon Merit Table and four times winners of the Devon Colts Cup. In 1998 the club won the Devon Cup again after 110 years, following victory over Torquay Athletic on their own ground.
Honours
;
Devon Senior Cup
:Winners (3): 1887, 1888, 1998
;
Devon Senior Vase
:Winners: 2010
;Devon Colts Cup
:Winners (3): 1971, 1972, 1981
;
Havill Plate
The Havill Plate was an annual rugby union knock-out competition organised by the Devon Rugby Football Union. It was first introduced during the 1971–72 season for clubs that were knocked out of the first round of the Devon Senior Cup with Il ...
:Winners: 1980
;
Tribute Cornwall/Devon League
:Champions: 2005–06
:Runners-up: 2013–14
;Devon Merit Table 1
:Champions (4): 1993–94, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2004–05
;Devon Merit Table 2
:Champions: 2010–11
Notable former players
*
Arthur Fagan (
England)
*
Charles Burt (
England Schools
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separa ...
)
*
Craig Gillies
Craig Gillies (born 6 May 1976) is a former English rugby union player. His final club was Worcester Warriors in the Aviva Premiership. He played as a lock.
Gillies was born in Paisley and grew up in Tiverton, Devon. He joined Bath Rugby f ...
(
England A,
Worcester Warriors,
Llanelli Scarlets
The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...
,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
,
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
)
*
Matt Kvesic
Matthew Boris "Matt" Kvesic (born 14 April 1992) is an English professional rugby union player for Coventry. Born in Germany to English parents, he represented England at international level and played for several youth representative sides be ...
(
England,
England U20,
England U18,
England U16,
Gloucester,
Stourbridge,
Worcester Warriors)
*
Willie Luangrath
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...
(
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
)
See also
*
Oldest football clubs
The oldest football clubs trace their origins to the mid-19th century, a period when football evolved from being a casual pastime to an organised mainstream sport.
The identity of the oldest football clubs in the world, or even in a particular ...
*
History of rugby union
The history of rugby union follows from various football games long before the 19th century, but it was not until the middle of that century that the rules were formulated and codified. The code of football later known as rugby union can be tra ...
*
English rugby union system
References
External links
Official club website
{{Rugby union in England
English rugby union teams
Rugby clubs established in 1868
1868 establishments in England
Rugby union in Devon
Tiverton, Devon