Draft:Brunel University RFC

Brunel Wiki Page

Brunel University RFC
Brunel University Rugby Football Club is the rugby union club of Brunel University London.

The club is the academy program for professional club Ealing Trailfinders RFC. The clubs currently consisted of five mens teams and two womens teams. The Mens 1st XV compete in BUCS Premier, The Womens 1st XV compete in BUCS Division 1. The club will competes in the RFU Leagues. The clubs annual varsity match is against St Mary's University, Twickenham.

The rugby club caters for all standards of play. The partnership with Ealing Trailfinders provides a comprehensive pathway for elite players. The clubs support from RFU cluster officer and county development team ensure that there is a place for all standards.

The Trailfinders Rugby Academy
The performance program at Brunel University RFC is managed and delivered by the professional rugby staff of Ealing Trailfinders RFC. The Trailfinders Rugby Academy aim is to provide a world class training environment for aspiring professional players to combine full time rugby with excellent study opportunities. The program is underpinned by a long term partnership between both Brunel University London and Ealing Trailfinders. Prospective students are supported with a comprehensive back room staff that covers medical, analysis, conditioning, pastoral, and coaching.The scholarship program provide facilities and financial support to the relevant candidates to support their rugby and academic journey.

The program is delivered in world class facilities at the Uxbridge Campus. All members have access to three gyms suites, a health and wellbeing centre (Jacuzzi, Steam, Sauna and Plunge pool) an Indoor Athletics Centre (130m indoor track, olympic platforms and a high performance gym) Additionally to this the out door facilities boast a running track, international grade grass rugby pitch and two synthetic pitches. The program also completes regular training at Vallis Way home of Ealing Trailfinders that has a further three gyms, and two Artificial grass pitches.

History
Rugby has been played at Brunel University London or one its predecessor colleges since 1891. The Rugby football section at Brunel was first mentioned in the October 1891 edition of 'The B.'s' (the monthly newspaper of Borough Road College) where it was reported that both the Association and Rugby football teams 'have started well'. The Rugby players would later follow the lead of their newspaper by nicknaming their new Club 'The Bees'.

The Early Years
Borough Road College was founded in 1798 as Joseph Lancaster's School in Southwark. It evolved through Lancaster's 'monitorial' teaching system to become the oldest teacher training college in the British Commonwealth. The College moved to Borough Road, Southwark in 1804, where it was first known as Borough Road College. The seeds of a Rugby football section were planted in 1889 when the College moved out of central London to a site at Isleworth and appointed a comparative youngster, thirty year old P.A. Barnett, as the new Principal. Barnett revolutionised Borough Road College by organising it more along the lines of a Victorian public school. As part of these changes games were made compulsory for all and played every afternoon.

Barnett himself had been educated at the City of London School and Trinity College, Oxford, and was a firm believer not only in keeping his pupils fit, but also, as he saw it, in the moral and social benefits that team games brought to their development. It was during the years at the turn of the century that Borough Road College began to gain a national recognition for sporting excellence. In 1900 the famous Oxford University, London Scottish and Scottish International full-back Allen Ramsey Smith became a tutor. Smith, who was a talented coach as well as a first-class player, had won eleven Caps for Scotland between 1895 and 1900 and also Captained the team. Another very talented Rugby player by the name of Rhys Gabe attended the College between 1900-02. This young Welshman became the first International sportsman to be produced by Borough Road when first capped as a centre against Ireland in 1901. Gabe, who in his time also played for Llanelli, London Welsh and Cardiff, went on to win a total of 24 Caps for Wales and the British Lions. The years that preceeded the Great War witnessed the growth of inter-college competitions. By far the most important of these was the Inter College Shield, an athletics trophy which was competed for initially by Borough Road, St. Mary's and St. Mark's Colleges. These three Colleges —plus Westminster and St. John's — were soon playing competitive games of Rugby football, too. Sporting achievement was recognised by the awarding of Honours Caps to Members of the major College teams. By the outbreak of war in 1914 Borough Road College was already widely recognised as being an outstanding Institution for sporting excellence. The Great War had a devastating impact on the College. In 1916 it was forced to relocate to Richmond, and by the end of hostilities it was on its knees financially. Although Borough Road had a reasonably good fixture list in the inter-war years (the College played regular matches against the likes of Saracens in the early '20s, for instance) generally speaking the years between 1919 and 1945 were relatively unsuccessful in terms of sporting achievement.

Post War Years
The post-war years saw a steady expansion of sport and physical education at Borough Road, mainly due to the influence of two men. George Little was the head of the Physical Education Department for over 30 years and James Biddle was a student between 1947-1949, a lecturer from 1956-1974 and Head of Department from 1974-1982. It was during the tenure of Little and Biddle that most of the significant changes took place. In 1959 the College was designated as a specialist school for the training of teachers in physical education. The 1970s saw the establishment of the West London Centre of Excellence and the amalgamation of the College with Chiswick Polytechnic and Maria Grey College to become the West London Institute of Higher Education. In the 1980s it became the London Centre of Excellence and the National Coaching Centre for London. Finally, the 1990s saw it become the National Sports Development Centre, whilst the Institute formally became part of Brunel University in 1995. Brunel University mens program experienced a huge amount of success winning the (BUSA) championship in 2001 and 2003 and European universities champions in 2004. After these heady heights the club slipped to the lower leagues of BUCS rugby.

Womens Rugby
Womens rugby has been played at Brunel or one its predecessor colleges since the early 1980's making it one of the first universities to set up a womens section. The mens and womens teams have always been a combined club. The womens program has experienced much success over recent season seeing three consecutive promotions for 2017 to 2020. Notable players from the womens program in recent season have been May Campbell (England u20, A) and Hannah West (England u20 and A).

The Modern Era
After a steady climb back up the leagues to BUCS 1A a resurgence in the rugby program was starting to show, the womens program had gone from strength with numerous cup wins and promotions and the Men's program recored a varsity win for the first time in 12 years. The new partnership with Ealing Trailfinders has provided the club with the drive to excel back towards the top of university rugby. An immediate benefit was seen with the men's team gaining promotion to BUCS premier with an undefeated league season in 2019-20.