Henley Rugby Club is the leading rugby club based in the Thames Valley (London Irish play their matches at the Madjeski Stadium but their headquarters are still at Sunbury, Middlesex where all their junior teams are based), playing in English National Division 2 which places them amongst the top 42 clubs in England.

Henley RFC was founded in August 1930 as Old Henleiensians (old boys of Henley Grammar School). After a break during the war years it was re-founded in 1954 and changed it's name to Henley RFC in 1963. It has been based at Dry Leas since then.

 

The ground is leased from the Town Council with the unexpired portion being nearly 50 years.When the leagues were started in 1987/88 Henley were placed in South West II. Henley's fortunes stood still until Clive Woodward, England' World Cup winning manager became the 1st XV coach in 1990. His introduction of the "flat ball" philosophy was a pioneering event for British rugby and not only brought promotion in 1992 but captured the imagination of English rugby. As a result Henley gained a further promotion in 1994 to the National Leagues and after Woodward departed to coach London Irish Henley continued to play fluid rugby and two further promotions followed in 1997/98 and 1998/99 when they were promoted as champions to what is now English Division I.

 

In the same year they had a record run in the Tetley's Bitter Cup defeating Premier 1 Bedford in the 4th Round before bowing out, with honour, to Gloucester at Kingsholm when they took 1000 supporters with them.

 

They finished ninth on National 1 in 1999/00, seventh in 2000/01 but in finishing 13th in 2001/02 they were relegated to National 2. They regained there place in National 1 by finishing second in Div 2 in season 2002/03 but two years later they were relegated to National 2 where they now currently play.

The main playing pitch surface at Dry Leas is considered to be one of the best in the country (confimed by the leading referees e.g.Ed Morrison, Steve Lander etc). There are five other playing pitches of excellent standard adjoining the famous regatta course.These pitches are used by all the other teams in the club and by the recently formed Henley Wanderers RFC (the amateur club for Henley players). In addition since 2004 they have had training pitch supplied by Tigerturf . This synthetic surface can be used for all contact aspects of rugby in all types of weather conditions apart from snow and severe frost..

 

The Tigerturf Arena was built thanks to a grant of £300,000 from Sport England . The facilities are used not only by the 24 teams of all ages who play at Dry Leas but is hired to schools, sports clubs and companies from the Henley Area for a variety of activities all the year round and has the benefit of floodlights. Bookings are made through the club's administrative secretary Mary Worsdell 01491 635350)

Ground Capacity: 4000.
Covered Stand: 150
Standing Uncovered : 3850
Car Park : 1000.

 

Clubhouse : 2 bars - sponsors pre-match luncheon facility - 120.

 

Snack and Bar Food available

 

Function Capacities - 250, 80 and 20

 

Club Shop - open on all matchdays and Sunday mornings

 

Admission :
Season Ticket ( Non members ) Seated £110 Ground £ 90 Concessions £60.
Match day : Standing Adults £10, Concessions £7, Under 16 FREE, Seated : Adults £13.
Total Membership of the club is circa 700
Average Attendance 2005/06 = 400

Since 2000/01 Henley RFC have been fielding two senior sides which are known as Henley Hawks I and Henley Hawks Alliance (the name Henley Hawks was adopted in 1995 for marketing and public relation purposes). Hawks Alliance play in mid-week and the majority of their fixtures are with Academy/2nd XV 's of southern Premier clubs. Henley Women' XV play in the National Premier League having gained promotion in five out of six seasons since their foundation and currently have a umber of full England Internationals

 

Henley Colts play in the 3 Counties League (Bucks,Berks and Oxon) and the Oxfordshire Cup. There are teams at each age group from 7 -17 with a total membership of 400 plus. Henley Wanderers RFC was formed in 2000 to give players who wish to play the game purely as amateurs competitive rugby. The players who play for this club formerly played for Henley RFC's 3rd and 4th teams. It was necessary to form a new club as RFU regulations then forbade any of their member clubs fielding teams in more than one competitive league. Henley Wanderers 1st XV after successive promotions now play in South West 2 East

There are 40 qualified coaches at Junior and Mini level.

There is a Community Development Officer, Andrew Unsworth who assists with coaching at junior and senior schools in the area and whose wider remit is to introduce and foster rugby amongst the young(boys and girls).

The current Hawks playing squad includes five players who have represented England or Wales at under 21 level./under 18 level.

Founded in 1993. Attracts world class teams Fiji(when world champions) Samoa, Portugal (world sevens qualifiers) Latvia, Russia, Spain, West Indies, China, Uganda plus teams based on New Zealand and Springbok emigrants. Most of the top clubs in the country have played in these sevens which has attracted crowds of 5000.