Rugby Union Clubs
Gloucester Rugby Club
Kingsholm
Kingsholm Road
Gloucester
GL1 3AX | map
Gloucestershire
Tel: 0871 871 871
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Gloucester Rugby Club was founded in 1873 following a meeting at the Spread Eagle Hotel in Gloucester. The boundaries between Association Football and Rugby Football were still being drawn in those days, with the Rugby Football Union only being formed in 1871 and the Football Association being formed in 1863. Prior to this the rules for each game were usually agreed by the teams prior to the game and some games even involved a mix of the two codes. Gloucester were ambitious in the early days but soon fell foul of the Rugby Football Union, being suspended for professionalism after it was found that they had been recruiting illegally according the Union rules. Gloucester responded by returning to strictly amateur principles, consequently losing many of its players to the new breakaway professional code, Rugby League Football. Gloucester stuck to this principle for many years to come, even when other teams were known to be offering inducements to players in the years leading up to the allowance of professionalism in Rugby Union. Ironically, since the advent of open professionalism, the new professional Gloucester Rugby Club has built one of the strongest teams in the English professional league. They are one of the powerhouses of the Guinness Premiership, having won the title twice since its inception in 1997.
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