FC St. Pauli Rugby
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| Full name | FC St. Pauli Rugby |
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| Union | German Rugby Federation |
| Founded | 1910 (club) 1933 (rugby department) |
| Location | Hamburg, Germany |
| Chairman | Dr. Nils Zurawski |
| Coach(es) | Paul McGuigan |
| Captain(s) | Julian Maury |
| League(s) | Rugby-Bundesliga |
| 2015–16 | Rugby-Bundesliga North/East, 5th |
| Official website | |
| fcstpaulirugby |
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The FC St. Pauli Rugby is a German rugby union club from Hamburg, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. The team is part of the multi-sport club FC St. Pauli, which also offers other sports like Association football, American football and Baseball.
While the men's team has had limited success over the years, St. Pauli's women are one of the most successful teams in Germany, having reached every championship final from 1995 to 2008 and winning eight out of the fourteen.
St Pauli 's rugby department was formed in 1933 when two Jewish brothers were forced to leave their club, the SV St. Georg, and joined FC St Pauli. In April 1933, the FC St Pauli board called for the formation of a rugby team and the club's 6th football XI decided to switch codes and play rugby instead.
It took the team over a year to achieve their first draw but it soon improved and won its first Nordmark championship, against bitter rival Hamburger SV Rugby. It repeated this success in 1938 and 1939.
The club resumed playing rugby in 1947, at first against teams of the British occupation force in Germany, but soon in the Nordmark championship again, which it won uninterruptedly from 1948 to 1958.
In the early 1960s, St Pauli faced strong opposition from local rival SV Polizei Hamburg and the Nordmark championship became a Hamburg-only competition after the last of the teams from Kiel was dissolved.
The club's men's team reached its only German championship final in 1964, when it lost 0-11 to DSV 78 Hannover after having beaten favourites SC Neuenheim in Heidelberg in the semi-finals.
FC St Pauli Rugby was one of the founding members of the new Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971 and, in the first three seasons, was a competitive side there. An ageing team and a slacking in the youth development led to the club's relegation in 1975, temporarily even setting a negative Bundesliga record with a 3-102 defeat against TSV Victoria Linden.
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