The München RFC is a German rugby union club from Munich, currently playing in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga.
History While rugby had been played in Munich and Bavaria before the inception of the MRFC in 1977, four clubs existed in the city in the 1920s and 1930s,History of Bavarian Rugby Bavarian rugby association website, accessed: 25 January 2009 the club's game on 10 June 1978 was the first proper game of rugby played in the city of Munich in almost 50 years.The History of München RFC MRFC website, accessed: 25 January 2009
Rugby had been in hibernation in Bavaria since the days of the Nazis and when US soldiers in the garrison of Augsburg formed a team in 1974, it was the first post-war rugby club to be formed in Bavaria.History of Bavarian Rugby Bavarian rugby association website, accessed: 25 January 2009 After a number of other military teams were formed in the following years, MRFC became the first civilian club to be formed in the state in 1977, by British expats, mostly from Wales. The club was formed in a pub in the Isarvorstadt and played its first game that autumn.The History of München RFC MRFC website, accessed: 25 January 2009
The first game it played in Munich, in June 1978, was against the Bad Tölz US Army and it took another year to play its first German opponent, RC Rottweil, on 30 June 1979. Not until 1985 was a second non-military team established in Bavaria, the rugby department of TuS Fürstenfeldbruck.
The club was officially registered in 1982 and in July 1983 attained incorporated status (German: e.V.). However, it could not obtain a regular home ground in Munich and had to play its matches in Fürstenfeldbruck.
Due to Bavaria neither having a league nor a rugby federation in those days, the club had to join the Regionalliga in neighbouring Baden-Württemberg in 1984.
In 1990, the club's long term coach, Rory Donoghue, signed up and a generation change was carried out within it. A quick result of this was the winning of the South German Championship in 1991.
MRFC finally obtained a home ground within Munich, Am Hedernfeld and was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga South in 1992, where it only lasted for one season.
After two seasons back in tier three, the club once more won promotion to the second division in 1995. A year later, the club became one of the founding members of the Bavarian Rugby Federation, the RVBY.
In 1998, the club celebrated promotion to the Rugby-Bundesliga for the first time, only to be denied a licence and having to stay in division two.
In 2000, the MRFC finally reached the top-tier of German rugby through a third place in the Bundesliga qualification round. Its first season in the new league was reasonably successful and any other year, a second place in the spring qualification round would have been enough to hold on to its league place but a restructuring of the German league system, but the move from two to a single division Bundesliga meant, RFC had to return to the 2nd Bundesliga.
MRFC won the championship in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2002, won against North/East champion Post SV Berlin, meant promotion back to the elite league.
Again, the stay in the Bundesliga lasted for only one season and the team was relegated back down immediately, without a win and 14 losses.
Since then, the club has been playing in the 2nd Bundesliga South/East as a mid-table side. In 2004, it was joined there by local rival StuSta München. Another promotion to the Bundesliga was not in sight in 2008-09 either, with the team coming fourth in the league once more.
In the 2012-13 season the club competed in the 2nd Bundesliga, finishing in the upper half of the table and qualifying for the play-offs for the DRV-Pokal. The club advanced to the semi-finals of the play-offs where it was knocked out by Heidelberger TV.
The club once more qualified for the play-offs to the DRV-Pokal in 2013–14, where it was knocked out by USV Potsdam Rugby in the first round. In the 2014–15 season the club finished first in the south-west Liga-Pokal group and lost to the reserve team of TSV Handschuhsheim n the final after a first round bye and victories over RC Dresden and TuS 95 Düsseldorf.
The 2015-16 Season was the most successful Season in the club's history. Munich RFC won both the 2nd Bundesliga South and the Bavarian Regionalliga for the first time in the club's history. The first team went on to the Play Off Final to decide whether they would gain promotion to the highest level in German Rugby. MRFC lost to Luxembourg Rugby Club in a very close final 12-9.
In 2017 the Club moved from the old training facility in Giesing to a new state of the art 4G training pitch in Großhadern. Directly next to the match day home ground (see Home Ground). In the same year Munich RFC celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the club.
Since 2002, the club also has a women's team and with Yvonne Schwarzkopf its first German international.
Club honours 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga Champions: 2002, 2016, 2022 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West Champions: 2002, 2016, 2022 Runners-up: 2010 Bayern Regionalliga Champions: 2016, 2022
Recent seasons Recent seasons of the club:RugbyWeb Ergebnisarchiv rugbyweb.de - Results archive, accessed: 24 July 2012
Men
First team Year Division Position 1998-99 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West (II) Bundesliga qualification round 4th 1999-2000 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd Bundesliga qualification round 3rd — Promoted 2000-01 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West (I) 4th Bundesliga qualification round 2nd — Relegated 2001-02 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West (II) 1st — Promoted 2002-03 Rugby-Bundesliga (I) 8th — Relegated 2003-04 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West (II) 3rd 2004-05 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd 2005-06 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd 2006-07 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 6th 2007-08 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 5th 2008-09 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 4th 2009–10 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 2nd 2010–11 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd 2011–12 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 7th 2012–13 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 2nd DRV-Pokal – South-West 4th — Semi finals 2013–14 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 2nd DRV-Pokal – South-West 3rd — First round 2014–15 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 3rd Liga-Pokal – South-West 1st — Runners-up 2015–16 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South 1st2016–172nd Rugby-Bundesliga South5th2017–182nd Rugby-Bundesliga South3rd2018–192nd Rugby-Bundesliga South4th2019–202nd Rugby-Bundesliga South4th2020–21Season Cancelled (COVID Pandemic)2021–222nd Rugby-Bundesliga South1st — Promoted2022–231st Rugby-Bundesliga South/West6th2023–241st Rugby-Bundesliga South/West4th 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.
Development team Year Division Position 2001-02 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria (III) 4th 2002-03 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 3rd 2003-04 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 4th 2004-05 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 5th 2005-06 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 4th 2006–07 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 5th 2007–08 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 4th 2008–09 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 4th 2009–10 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 7th 2010–11 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 4th 2011–12 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 5th 2012–13 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 4th 2013–14 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 5th 2014–15 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 8th 2015–16 Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria 1st2016–17Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria4th2017–18Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria8th2018–19Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria2nd2019–20Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria2nd2020–21Season Cancelled (COVID Pandemic)2021–22Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria3rd2022–23Rugby-Regionalliga Bavaria1st — Promoted2023–242nd Rugby-Bundesliga South7th
Women Year Division Position 2002-03 Women's Rugby Bundesliga (I) 4th 2003-04 Women's Rugby Bundesliga 4th — Relegated 2004-05 2005-06 Women's 2nd Rugby Bundesliga (II) 3rd 2006–07 Women's 2nd Rugby Bundesliga 4th 2007–08 Women's 2nd Rugby Bundesliga 3rd 2008–09 Women's 2nd Rugby Bundesliga 6th 2009–10 Women's 2nd Rugby Bundesliga 6th 2010–11 Women's Rugby Bundesliga 9th 2011–12 Women's Rugby Bundesliga 6th 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 Women's Rugby Bundesliga 8th 2015–16 Women's Rugby Bundesliga 7th
References
External links Official website Bavarian rugby association MRFC team info at totalrugby.de Tables and results of German rugby on rugbyweb.de