The
TSV Handschuhsheim is a German
rugby union club from Heidelberg
, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. Apart from rugby,
the club also offers other sports like
association football,
handball and
tennis.
History
The club was formed in 1886 in Handschuhsheim, a suburb of
Heidelberg, one of the centres of
German rugby.
For most of its existence, it has stood in the shadow of the other,
more successful rugby clubs in town, the
SC
Neuenheim,
Heidelberger RK and
RG Heidelberg.
TSV had a breakthrough in 1953, when it reached the German
championship final for the first time. It played in three more
finals in the next four years, winning its sole championship in
1957. Three more final appearances followed in the 60's.
With the establishment of the
Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971, success dropped
off for the team and after one more finals appearance in 1978 a
long draught followed.
After a 27 year title-wait,
TSV took out the German Cup in
2005 but lost the championship final that year. Both games were
against
DRC Hannover.
In 2008 it won the cup once more, surprisingly beating German
champions RG Heidelberg 24-23 after extra time in front of 1,000
spectators, quite a reasonable crowd for German rugby.
In
2008-09, the club sat in
fourth place at the winter break with good chances of making it
into the expanded finals, where the top-four now qualifed but
narrowly missed those with a sixth place finish. Its reserve team
played in the 2nd Bundesliga South/West this season. The club also
reached the German Cup final once more, losing to champions
SC 1880 Frankfurt.
The clubs rugby department had a membership of 360 in 2007.
With
Thorsten Wiedemann and
Jens Schmidt, the club provided two
players to the
Germany
national rugby union team in 2008.
Club honours
- German sevens championship
Recent seasons
| Year |
Division |
Position |
| 1998-99 |
Rugby-Bundesliga South/West (I) |
1st |
| Bundesliga championship round |
6th |
| 1999-2000 |
Rugby-Bundesliga South/West |
1st |
| Bundesliga championship round |
6th |
| 2000-01 |
Rugby-Bundesliga South/West |
1st |
| Bundesliga championship round |
4th |
| 2001-02 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
4th |
| 2002-03 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
5th |
| 2003-04 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
4th |
| 2004-05 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
2nd |
| 2005-06 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
4th |
| 2006-07 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
6th |
| 2007-08 |
Rugby-Bundesliga |
3rd |
| 2008-09 |
Rugby-Bundesliga
(I) |
6th |
- 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.
Current squad 2008-2009
External links
Sources
References
Wikis
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