History
The clubs origins date back to 1872, when, on 9 May, the Deutschen Flaggen-Club Heidelberg was formed, a rowing club. In the early days, several rowing clubs were formed in Heidelberg and disappeared again, but the remaining ones merged in 1875 to form the Heidelberger Ruderclub, under the leadership of the Flaggen-Club.
The game of rugby was introduced in the club in the early 1890s by Edward Hill Ullrich, who was partly of English descend and had a great love of "English" games, translating the rules of rugby into German. It is from this beginnings that the HRK claims to be the oldest rugby club in Germany. This is true in the sense that its the oldest rugby-playing club in Germany but other clubs have an older rugby department.
The club had a golden era in the late 1920s, when it reached the German championship final three years in a row, winning the title in 1927 and 1928.
After years of stagnation and a lack of home ground, the HRK formed a youth department and moved to the Sportgelände an der Speyererstraße in 1961, which is still its current home. This development soon bore fruit and the club earned three championships in the 1970s, also qualifying for the new Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971. The club continued to be a force in German rugby well into the 80's, earning its last championship in 1986.
After a period of decline, it found itself in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga, where it was promoted from back to the first division in 1997. After a short stint in this league, the team had to return to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2000, where it was to remain for the next couple of seasons.
The club dominated the 2nd Bundesliga South/West in 2004-05, winning all 16 regular season games, the largest win being a 146-5 victory over BSC Offenbach. In the final against the North/East champion DSV 78/08 Ricklingen, a 18-6 victory meant promotion back to the Bundesliga.
Since then, the club has existed as a lower table side in the league, sitting just above the relegation zone. In 2008-09, the clubs performance has much improved and a second place saw the team return to the German finals for the first time in over 20 years. In the semi-finals, the club beat SC Neuenheim, to reach its first national championship final since 1986, where it narrowly lost 11-8 to SC 1880 Frankfurt. The following season, HRK finished third in the league but reached the final once more, this time defeating SC 1880 39-22 in extra time, to earn its first national championship since 1986. It repeated this achievement in 2010-11 when it defeated Frankfurt once more in a closely fought final, winning 12-9. Having won the men's national cup and sevens championship as well as the national championship and sevens championship with the women's, the HRK took out all five available national titles in 2010-11.
In 2011-12, the club also took part in the North Sea Cup, a European Cup competition made up of two clubs each from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The club once more finished top of the table in the league in 2011-12, losing only one of its 18 games, reaching the final for a fourth consecutive time, but facing TV Pforzheim there rather than SC 1880 Frankfurt, its opposition in the previous three finals. HRK won the final 20-16 and won its ninth German championship.
In the 2012–13 season the club took part in the European Clubs Championship, a new competition, on the strength of its North Sea Cup runners-up finish in the previous year, facing the Croatian champions RK Nada in the semi-finals, which HRK won 43–0. The club consequently qualified for the final against Lituanian club RC Šiauliai who had knocked out SC 1880 in the semi finals, winning this game and the competition 60–10. The European Clubs Championship is open to the winners of the Baltic and Balkan Cups as well as the winners and runners-up of the North Sea Cup.
HRK finished first in their group in the 2012-13 season and qualified for the south/west divison of the championship round, where it also came first. The club won its fourth consecutive German championship defeating SC Neuenheim 41-10 in the final. In the North Sea Cup the club reached the final where it defeated Belgian club Boitsfort Rugby Club 34-10 to take out the competition for the first time.
The clubs reserve side has played for many years in the league below, the 2nd Bundesliga South/West, but stepped down to the third level for 2012–13.
The club also has a successful women's team, which plays at the highest level in Germany, the Women's Rugby Bundesliga, but it took the team until 2010 to win a national championship at this level. It has however won the national sevens championship in the past.
Read more about this topic: Heidelberger RK
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