Berwick Rugby Football Club is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

team that was founded in 1926, and reformed in 1968. The team is based in the town of

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

, on the English side of the border with Scotland. They are affiliated to both the English

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

and the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

. They play in the

. Berwick play their home games at Scremerston.

History

Berwick Rugby club was formed in the SRU in 1926 and played in the South District Union. Its playing standard improved until the early 1930s and although it survived annual difficulties of finding players and pitches it could not survive the outbreak of the Second World War which robbed it of both. When the club was reborn in 1968 it had three main aims - to strive for as high a standard of rugby as possible for the club and its individual members, to create a good physical environment for rugby, and to be part of the sporting and social fabric of Berwick. Pursuit of the first aim has taken the Club to the BT Scottish Premiership (Division 2). In 2004 it won the National Shield and in 2006 reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup. To date, the highest individual honours are headed by the 17 full Scottish caps won by Craig Smith and the thirty three by Gavin Kerr. Both were in the 2006 Six Nations Squad. Kerr was a member of the 2003 World Cup Squad and the Six Nations Squads of 2004 and 2005. Mark Lee captained the Scottish VII in 2002 Commonwealth Games and played with the British Army in 2005. Andrew Skeen played for the Scotland VII in the 2006 IRB Tournament. Current Berwick players have won many age-group, School and Student international and regional honours and the Club boasts a full international referee in Iain Ramage. In 2001 the club was invited to join the Border League, becoming only the second English Club in rugby's oldest league. The club has sides in the Border League, the new cross-Border League, the Border Semi-Junior League and age-group competitions from minis to Colts on both sides of the Border. The club has an increasingly skilled Ladies section which won promotion in 1999 and 2000 and was runner-up in the National Bowl in 2004. London Scottish is another example of a rugby club in both the English and Scottish rugby unions.

Berwick Sevens

The rugby club runs the Berwick Sevens tournament. This takes place annually in April and the competition is part of the Kings of the Sevens tournament. It has been won by the hosts only the once, in 1986. Current holders of the trophy (2019) are Watsonians.

Notable players

Notable players for Berwick RFC include * Craig Smith capped for *

Gavin Kerr Gavin Kerr (born 3 April 1977) is a retired rugby union footballer who played prop on either side of the scrum. He played club rugby for Leeds Tykes (now Leeds Carnegie), the defunct Border Reivers, Edinburgh and Sale Sharks, and at international ...

capped for * James King currently playing for

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

* Andrew Skeen capped and captained for team * Mark Lee capped and captained for the at XV and 7's and team * Jason Girdwood

Honours

* Berwick Sevens ** Champions (1): 1986 * Hawick Linden Sevens ** Champions (1): 2012 * Northumberland Senior Cup: 1997 * Northumberland Senior Plate: 2003 Scottish Shield winners: 2004, 2019.

References

External links