Preston Grasshoppers Rugby Football Club is an
English rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...
team from
Preston, Lancashire
Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...
. The men's senior team play in the RFU
National League 2 North, a level 4 league in the RFU league pyramid.
History
The club was founded on 28 September 1869 at a meeting held at the Bull Hotel, Preston, making it one of the oldest 'northern' rugby union teams.
The club were based at Farringdon Park (the location today is Farringdon Crescent), New Hall Lane from 1924 until 1932, an old Amusement Park and Cycling Track. In 1929 the club agreed a six-year sub-tenancy with
Preston (speedway) and a dirt track was constructed around the perimeter of the rugby pitch. The speedway syndicate folded in 1932 but a greyhound syndicate paid the Grasshoppers £2,000 (a huge sum at the time) to vacate the ground the same year.
Grasshoppers' players who have progressed to bigger stages include
A.N. Hornby
Albert Neilson Hornby, nicknamed Monkey Hornby (10 February 1847 – 17 December 1925) was one of the best-known sportsmen in England during the nineteenth century excelling in both rugby and cricket. He was the first of only two men to captain ...
, the first man to captain both the English national rugby and cricket sides,
Dick Greenwood and his son
Will Greenwood
William John Heaton Greenwood, MBE (born 20 October 1972) is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 World Cup-winning team and the 1997 British & Irish Lions. He ...
, later to play
outside centre for
Leicester Tigers,
Harlequins and
England
England is a 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 separated from continental Europe ...
, second row star
Steve Borthwick, captaining
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 ...
and playing a key role in the England international side,
Wade Dooley, who won 55 caps in the second row for England and represented the British and Irish Lions on tours to Australia (1989) and South Africa (1993), and
Paul Grayson, who went on to play a number of games at
fly half for England. Other past players gaining England caps include
Don Rutherford and
Iain Balshaw
Iain Robert Balshaw, MBE (born 18 April 1979) is an English former rugby union player who played on the wing or at full back for Bath, Leeds Carnegie, Gloucester and Biarritz Olympique. He won 35 international caps for England between 2000 an ...
.
Wigan Athletic F.C. striker
James Vaughan also played rugby union for the side, before switching to football.
When the national league structure was introduced in the mid nineties, Hoppers remained in National League 3 (North) until their promotion in 1998–99 season. This was achieved with the help of Australian Michael Lough and winger Ian Bruce who, between them, scored over 50 tries.
In 2013 Preston Grasshoppers 2nd team won the Preston Sports Awards Team Performance of the Year.
At the end of the 2015–16 Season Preston Grasshoppers accepted an offer from the RFU to replace the grass surface at Lightfoot Green Lane with an artificial 3G pitch. The terms of the agreement mean that the RFU have exclusive use of the pitch for the next thirty years.
In 2017–18 the club made an immediate return to National 2 North by winning the Northern Premier League at the first attempt. Under head coach Paul Arnold, the side were the stand out side in the division with number 8 Matthew Lamprey scoring 32 league tries during the campaign to set a new club record for tries in a league season, beating the previous best of 27 set by Michael Lough in the 1998–99 National 2 North championship winning season.
After a mid-table finish in National Two in the 2018–19 season, the club suffered an injury decimated season that resulted in relegation in a shortened season due to the Covid Pandemic. No play was available at all in the 2020–21 season due to the pandemic but the team rebounded to National Two by finishing runners-up in the Northern Premier Division in the 2021–22 season. They also won the Lancashire Cup to crown a superb season.
At the end of the season, head coach Paul Arnold announced he was to step down from the role. His successor is Joel Unsworth with Dan Orwin as his assistant coach. The team are competing in the restructured National League Two North in the 2022–23 season.
Honours
*
Jewson National League 2 North champions:
1998–99
*
Lancashire Cup winners (3): 2003, 2006, 2012, 2022
*
North Premier champions (2): 2004–05, 2017–18,
*
North Premier runner-up: 2021–22 (promoted)
Notable former players
Lions Tourists
The following Preston Grasshoppers player has been selected for
Lions tours while at the club:
Wade Dooley (
1989 &
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
)
Rugby World Cup
The following Preston Grasshoppers player has represented his country at the
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...
while at the club:
Current standings
References
External links
Official website
{{City of Preston culture
English rugby union teams
1869 establishments in England
Rugby clubs established in 1869
Sport in Preston
Rugby union in Lancashire