Professional Sports in London - Rugby Union

Rugby Union was an amateur sport until 1995 when the sport’s ruling body voted to make it ‘open’ or professional.This had a major impact on club rugby in Britain and teams were scrambling to find sponsors and financial backers to be able to compete in the new professional game and secure some of the new tv revenues that started flowing into the game.

Not all the top amateur teams made the transition and the rugby pecking order shifted around. The top English league competition is the 12 team Guinesss Premiership and four of the clubs, Saracens, Wasps, Harlequins and London Irish, are London or ‘nominally’ London teams.
Professionalism meant the clubs had to have better facilities for the new fans and three of these four have been moving where they play their games on a regular basis.

Saracens Taking their name from Saladin’s 12th century warriors who were known for their mobility and endurance Saracens’s were formed in 1876 and played for most of their history in the Enfield are of north London. After 1995 they moved from their Bramley Road ground to Enfield’s football ground and finally their present home at Watford Football Club’s Vicarage Road stadium. Watford is at the end of the Metropolitan Line, technically in Hertfordshire, so they’re just in the boundaries of Greater London.

London Wasps Formed in 1867, were based for at Sudbury near Wembley until the professional game got going. Played at Queens Park Ranger’s Loftus Road football stadium in Shepard’s Bush west London for a while, a great central location though Loftus Road is not the ideal ground for rugby. Currently they’ve moved completely out of London to Adams Park in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. So its jumping in the car and driving up the M40 or a bit of a train ride for fans in London who want to see Wasps. Still have one of the iconic figures of modern English rugby, Lawrence Dallaglio, playing for them.

London Irish Started in 1898 by expat Irishmen and have moved between south and southwest London during their history, its recognised home being Sunbury on Thames. Another team who’ve moved out of the capital for the time being to chase some revenue, the Exiles now play their home games at Reading Football Club’s Madejski Stadium.

Harlequins Founded in 1866 as Hampstead Football Club. The name was changed in 1870 because players were coming from outside the area but the HFC monogram was retained and when members worked their way through the H’s in a dictionary they stopped at Harlequin. Since the early 1960’s they’ve played their home matches at the Stoop ground in Twickenham near to the home of English rugby. The Stoop is close to Richmond, trains go from Waterloo or the nearest tube is Hounslow Central.

Beside’s playing in the Guiness Premiership these teams may play in the Heineken Cup European competition if they qualify through league position, Wasps and London Irish are in this season’s Heineken Cup. There’s second tier European competition called the European Challenge Cup and Harlequins and Saracens are both in that this season.
There’s also the domestic cup competition, the EDF Energy Cup which all teams are in.

Autumn is the traditional time for a hectic round of international matches when teams from the southern hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, and Canada play games against England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France.
This season England have four games at their Twickenham stadium in west London, against New Zealand on 5 November, Argentina on 11 November, and South Africa on the 18 and 25 November.

Tickets for the New Zealand and South Africa games usually sellout pretty fast but the RFU website is still selling tickets for the Argentina match.