Leeds Tykes
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| Full name | Yorkshire Carnegie Rugby Union Football Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1991 |
| Ground(s) | Headingley Rugby Stadium, Leeds, England (Capacity: 21,062) |
| Chairman | Professor Simon Lee |
| Director of Rugby | Chris Gibson |
| Coach(es) | Bryan Redpath |
| Captain(s) | Ryan Burrows |
| League(s) | RFU Championship |
| 2015–16 | 3rd |
| Official website | |
| www |
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Yorkshire Carnegie (formerly Leeds Carnegie, Leeds Tykes and Leeds RUFC) are an English rugby union club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the RFU Championship.
The club was founded in 1991 as Leeds RUFC. In 1998, the club merged with Leeds Rhinos to form Leeds Rugby Limited, also known as Leeds Tykes. In 2007, Leeds Metropolitan University bought a 51% stake in the club and changed the name to fit with the university's sport department, Carnegie College. At the end of the 2008–09 season, ownership of the club passed back into the hands of Leeds Rugby.
Leeds have bounced between the Premiership and the second-level National Division One, now known as the RFU Championship; they were either promoted or relegated in four consecutive seasons starting in 2006. Leeds were relegated from the Premiership as bottom finishers in 2006, promoted as National Division One champions in 2007, relegated again from the Premiership in 2008, and promoted a second time as National Division One champions in 2009. They managed to stay in the Premiership in the 2009–10 season, which helped to secure their financial future; starting with the 2010–11 season, they will become a full shareholder in Premier Rugby, the company behind the Premiership. In 2009–10, they only received 60% of a full share of Premiership revenues.
Headingley has a tradition of rugby which started back in 1877, after several youngsters became interested in rugby after watching Leeds St. John's, later to become the Leeds rugby league team. Their first game was in November against the Saints second team. Union was centred around a church club. The original rugby union team was Leeds St John's and it played at the Militia Barracks ground before moving to Cardigan Fields. The Headingley name was adopted in 1878 and Cardigan Fields was used for both rugby and cricket. On 5 January 1884, England played Wales there and won 5–3 with a crowd in the region of 2,000 in attendance. The club playing there was then disbanded but was re-formed again in 1885 under the auspices of the Headingley Hill Chapel Sunday Class and played matches on local fields against local teams, including Roundhay.
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