Eintracht Frankfurt Rugby


The Eintracht Frankfurt Rugby is a German rugby union :Category:German rugby union clubs|club from Frankfurt am Main, currently playing in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga, the second tier of rugby in Germany. It is part of a larger club, the Eintracht Frankfurt, which also offers other sports like association football, table tennis and basketball.
The team has twice appeared in the German rugby union championship final, in 1940 and 1965, but lost on both occasions. It was also a founding member of the Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971.

History

Formed in 1923, the team, for the most part of its history, stood and stands in the shadow of local rival SC 1880 Frankfurt. In 1931, Julius Fischer became the first Eintracht player to appear for the German national rugby team.
The clubs rugby department achieved its first national success in 1940, when it reached the German championship final, losing 6-19 to FV 1897 Linden. It made a second finals appearance in 1965, this time losing 12-17 to TSV Victoria Linden.
In 1971, Eintracht became a founding member of the southern division of the Rugby-Bundesliga.
The club did not survive in the Rugby-Bundesliga however, eventually being relegated to the tier-three Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse, where it plays today. In the early 2000s, the team took part in the promotion round to the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West but did not succeed in achieving promotion to this level, instead remaining a top of the table side in the Regionalliga. It has won the local Hesse championship more than ten times since 1955.
From 2010 onwards, Eintracht entered the new third division 3rd Liga South/West, where it played as a mid-table side. However, a league expansion saw the club return to the 2nd Bundesliga for 2012-13. In the 2012-13 season the club competed in the 2nd Bundesliga, finishing in the lower half of the table and qualifying for the play-offs for the Liga-Pokal. The club was knocked out in the first round of the play-offs after a defeat at Welfen SC Braunschweig.
The club qualified for the south-west division DRV-Pokal in 2013–14, but missed out on the play-offs after coming last in its group. In the 2014–15 season the club finished fifth in the south-west Liga-Pokal group but was knocked out in the quarter finals of the play-offs after a 48–40 loss to RC Dresden.

Club honours

Recent seasons of the club:
YearDivisionPosition
2001-02Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse 1st
2002-03Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse1st
2003-04Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse2nd
2004-05Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse
2005-06Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse/Rhineland-Palatinate4th
2006–07Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse5th
2007–08Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse4th
2008–09Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse2nd
2009–10Rugby-Regionalliga Hesse1st
2010-113rd Liga South/West 5th
2011–123rd Liga South/West - North4th
2012–132nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – West5th
2012–13Liga-Pokal – South-West6th — Round of sixteen
2013–142nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – West2nd
2013–14DRV-Pokal – South-West8th
2014–152nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – West6th
2014–15Liga-Pokal – South-West5th – First round
2015–162nd Rugby-Bundesliga West6th