Eastern Counties Rugby Union


The Eastern Counties Rugby Union is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk in England. Clubs in the old Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough are affiliated to the East Midlands Rugby Football Union. The union is the constituent body of the Rugby Football Union for those counties. The ECRU administers and organises rugby union clubs and competitions in those three counties and administers the Eastern Counties county rugby representative teams.

History

The Eastern Counties Rugby Union was founded in 1890 and originally organised rugby union in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. Cambridgeshire became part of the ECRU in 1952 and the Essex Rugby Football Union eventually split off from ECRU to form its own body in 2003.

Men's senior county team honours

runners-up: 1948, 1975
County Championship Plate runners-up: 2015
County Championship Shield runners-up: 2007

Games played against international opposition

Affiliated clubs

There are currently 53 clubs affiliated with the Eastern Counties RU, most of which have teams at both senior and junior level. Each club is in turn affiliated with a sub-county rugby football union, either Cambridgeshire, Norfolk or Suffolk, and are mostly based in those three counties except several cases where they are instead based in Essex or Hertfordshire.
The Eastern Counties RU currently helps run the following competitions for clubs from Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and occasionally Essex:

Leagues

The Eastern Counties allows 2nd and 3rd teams to play alongside 1st teams providing they are not from the same club. Divisions include:
There is no Eastern Counties cup competition. Instead, each sub-county organizes its own cup competitions for local teams.
Cambridgeshire
Norfolk
Suffolk