Manchester Rugby Club
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| Full name | Manchester Rugby Club |
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| Founded | 1860 |
| Location | Cheadle Hulme, England |
| Ground(s) | Grove Park (Capacity: 4,000) |
| Chairman | Andrew Bridgman |
| Coach(es) | James Beane, (Director of Rugby), Simon Ogdon (Senior Men's Head Coach), Bryan Fisher (Ladies' Head Coach) |
| Captain(s) | Club Captain: Karl Higginson; First XV: James Brodie; Ladies: Suzi Hobday |
| League(s) | South Lancs/Cheshire 1 Championship North 2 (Ladies) |
| Official website | |
| www |
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Manchester Rugby Club, founded as Manchester Football Club, was one of the first rugby union clubs in the world, having been founded in 1860, eleven years before the Rugby Football Union.
Home matches are played at Grove Park, Grove Lane, Cheadle Hulme, . The club has a Senior Men's section (1st XV, 2nd XV and 3rd XV), a Women & Girls section, and also Minis, Juniors and Colts (Manchester Academy). The club's home colours are red & white narrow hooped shirts, white shorts and red & white hooped socks. Away colours are navy shirts with red piping, navy shorts and navy socks.
Although founded in 1860, Manchester actually first played in 1857, when the Gentlemen of Manchester and the Gentlemen of Liverpool came together to play a friendly game. Richard Sykes, a former Captain of Football at Rugby School set up the Manchester team and provided the ball. The game was advertised as 'Rugby versus the World' and some fifty players arrived to play. There is no record of the score, however it appears that five goals were scored and so there must have been a winner.
Liverpool FC, who later merged with St Helens RUFC to form Liverpool St. Helens F.C, came into being not long afterwards. It is not known why Manchester did not also form at this date but the Liverpool and St Helens clubs' merger in 1986 left Manchester as the oldest rugby club in the world.
From 1919 until 1968 the club's home ground was at Moor Lane on Kersal Moor, now the home of Salford City Football Club.
Manchester had very strong links with the early RFU, with two former presidents of MFC also taking the same office as President of the RFU (James MacLaren 1882-1884 and Roger Walker) 1894-1896. Other members who have been President of the RFU are J.W.H.Thorpe (1898-1900), James Milnes (1934), J.Reg.Locker (1967) and Dr.T.A.Kemp, MD, FRCP (1971).
The club has provided a number of international players since 1871 (4 England players in the world's first ever international match against Scotland that year), including Albert Neilson Hornby, the first ever player to captain England at both rugby and cricket.The earliest international jersey is still on display in the clubhouse.
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