SC 1880 Frankfurt

SC 1880 Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Ground(s)	Sportanlage an der Feldgerichtstrasse
Chairman	Uwe H.H. Benecke
Coach(es)	Byron Schmidt
Captain(s)	Leo Wolf
League(s)	Rugby-Bundesliga
2022–23	Rugby-Bundesliga South/West, 1st (champions)
Team kit
Official website
www.sc1880.de

The Sport-Club Frankfurt 1880 e.V. (or SC 1880 Frankfurt) is a German

The club is one of four professional rugby clubs in Germany. The turn to professionalism in a sport otherwise fully amateur in Germany was made possible through the support of Uli Byszio, who owns a gold- and silver trading business.^[2] The club became an amateur side once more after the 2012–13 season.^[3]

The SC 1880 was formed in 1880 as a rugby club through the merger of two local rugby sides, "Germania" and "Franconia". It was formed as "FC 1880 Frankfurt" as a distinction between rugby and football was not made in Germany at that time.^[4]

Rugby quickly gained in popularity at that time and Frankfurt became the first German team to travel to England, playing the

In 1922–23, the club moved to its current home ground. In this era, two more national titles followed, in 1922 and 1925. In 1926 and 1931, the SC 1880 reached the final but lost. Before and after the war, the club played regular friendlies with the

With the establishment of the Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971, SC 1880 seems to have lost completely in importance and the new millennium found the club as a struggling second division outfit, having been relegated from the Rugby-Bundesliga in 1999. After suffering relegation from the second division in 2004, the club quickly rebounded and returned to this level the season after. With the help of foreign players and coaches, the fortunes of the club turned after this. A large part of the success of the club hails from the financial support of Uli Byszio, a former player, who led the way in professionalising the club.^[8]

In the 2005–06 season, the club earned promotion to the Rugby-Bundesliga by winning the 2nd Bundesliga South/West and then defeating RK 03 Berlin, the North/East champion, 39–5.^[9]

Upon return to the Bundesliga, the club performed impressively, finishing the

In the 2009–10 season, Frankfurt took out the minor premiership once more, for a fourth time in a row, but lost the final in extra time to Heidelberger RK. The following year, Frankfurt reached the final for a fifth consecutive time but lost 9–12. After two lost finals in a row, the club decided to replace its coach, with Sam Alatini taking over from Aaron Satchwell for 2011–12,[16] a move that proved unsuccessful with Frankfurt losing in the semi-finals at home to newly promoted TV Pforzheim.^[17]

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.^[18] While unsuccessful at national level the club did win the North Sea Cup with a 26–19 victory over Heidelberger RK.^[19]

SC 1880 finished first in their group in the 2012–13 season and qualified for the south/west division of the championship round, where it also came fifth. The club was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the play-offs after a 7–49 loss to Heidelberger RK. At the end of the season, the club opted to return to an amateur side, thereby being forced to withdraw its reserve team from the 2nd Bundesliga to the 3rd Liga because of a reduction of the size of the playing squad.^[3] Previously, the club's reserve side had played for many years in the 2nd Bundesliga South/West, where it has won the league championship in 2009 and 2012.

SC 1880 was less competitive in 2013–14 and 2014–15 then it had been in the recent past, finishing only seventh in each season the championship round and missing out on the play-off altogether. In the 2015-2016 season this improved to 6th position and also included a run to the semifinal of the DRV Pokal where they were defeated 10-21 by TSV Handshusheim. Carrying this momentum into the upcoming 2016-2017 season the club are optimistic that they will be in a position to challenge for silverware again at the end season.

The 2015-2016 season was overall an outstanding season for the SC1880 rugby club in general due to the performances from the age group teams winning what departing head of rugby Tim Matawatu named "The Grand Slam". The U12, U14, U16 and U18 were all crowned German Champions this season which is unprecedented in German rugby and means the future of ruby at SC1880 looks very bright.

The club's honours:

• German rugby union championship
  • Champions: 1910, 1913, 1922, 1925, 2008, 2009, 2019, 2022, 2023
  • Runners up: 1920, 1926, 1931, 1952, 1969, 2007, 2010, 2011
• German rugby union cup
  • Winner: 2007, 2009, 2010
  • Runners up: 2011
• German sevens championship
  • Champions: 2007, 2010
  • Runners up: 2008
• 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga
  • Champions: 2006, 2009^‡, 2012^‡
  • Division champions: 2006, 2009^‡, 2012^‡
• North Sea Cup
  • Winner: 2012
• ^‡ Denotes won by reserve team.

• 1968–69, 1969–70, 1988–89

EuroHockey Club Champions Cup: 2

• 1974, 1975

• 1987–88, 1988–89

Recent seasons of the club:^[20]

• 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.

In

For the opening match of the 2012–14 edition of the ENC against Ukraine the club had only Kieran Manawatu selected for the team.[21]

The club had no player selected for the German under-18 team at the 2009 European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship,^[22] but three for the 2010 tournament, Lukas Deichmann, Jens Listmann and Adam Howes.^[23]

Recent coaches of the club:

Name	Period
Lofty Stevenson	– 2009
Aaron Satchwell	2009 – 2011
Sam Alatini	2011 – 2012
Daniel Cünzer	2012 – 2015
Karl Savimaki	2015 – 2017