Gosforth 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, currently playing in Durham/Northumberland 3 following the club's relegation from

Durham/Northumberland 2 Counties 2 Durham & Northumberland, formerly known as Durham/Northumberland 2, is an English rugby union league at the eighth tier of the domestic competition for teams from North East England. The champions and runner-up are promoted to Count ...

at the end of the 2019-20 season. The club was originally established in 1877, however in 1996 the club split in two. One half, Newcastle Gosforth (now

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

) went on to become the first ever professional rugby union club.

have been one of the most successful clubs in Northern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

with 1 Premiership and 4 domestic cups to their name. The amateur Gosforth club was founded in the split. Their local rivals are Northern Football Club.

History

The original Gosforth Football Club was founded in 1877 by a group of Old Boys of

Durham School Durham School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding and day school in the English Public school (UK), public school tradition located in Durham, England, Durham, North East England. Since 2021 it has been part of th ...

, in whose colours of green and white hoops the club played until the mid-1990s. In 1955, the club moved to a new ground at North Road, Gosforth, which was to be its home until 1990. During that time and particularly in the late 1970s Gosforth enjoyed tremendous success both on and off the field, winning the

John Player Cup The RFU Knockout Cup was an English rugby union competition open to any member of the Rugby Football Union. First contested in 1971, it was the premier competition in English club rugby before the establishment of the English league structure in 1 ...

in seasons 1975/76 and 76/77. In 1990 the club name was changed to Newcastle Gosforth and they moved to

Kingston Park Kingston Park is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, about north west of the city centre. It is home to several large retailers, the largest being one of Tesco's flagship stores—at 11,055 square metres (119,000 sq ft) which was also t ...

. Gosforth Rugby Club continued as an amateur side working in partnership with

Northumbria University Northumbria University (legally the University of Northumbria at Newcastle) is a Public research university, public research university located in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, North East of England. It has been a university since 199 ...

. In 1996 Gosforth joined the new league structure (at the bottom) in Durham/Northumberland 4 (then level 13), won the league at the first attempt, and achieved a ‘double’ by also winning the Northumberland Senior Shield. Further league championships were won in 1997/98 ( Durham/Northumberland 3), 1999/2000 (

) and 2000/01 (

), the latter at level 8 after reorganisation of the leagues in 2000. The club struggled in

Durham/Northumberland 1 Counties 1 Durham & Northumberland, formerly known as Durham/Northumberland 1 is an English amateur rugby union competition. The league consists of twelve clubs, and is the seventh tier of the English rugby union system, as one of the 16 region ...

and was relegated in 2003 but regained its place with promotion in 2005/06. As the new amateur club they played at Bullocksteads Sports Ground from 1996–2007 and played at Druid Park until 2014. Gosforth returned to Bullocksteads Sports Ground for one season, while plans were put in place to move back to Gosforth, for the first time since the sale of the North Road Ground in 1990. The BiG (Back in Gosforth) campaign was finally achieved in July 2015, when the flag was raised at the new clubhouse on Broadway West.

Notable players

Gosforth supplied innumerable players to all counties over the years, to the North of England sides and to the full international and British Lions teams. * Arthur Smith, 33 caps for and never dropped.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ) p159 *

Ray McLoughlin Raymond John McLoughlin (21 August 1939 – 20 November 2021) was an Irish rugby union international who was capped 40 times at prop, an Irish record at the time. He began at tight head, moving to the open side on his return to the Ireland tea ...

Malcolm Young Malcolm Mitchell Young (6 January 1953 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian musician who was the rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and a founding member of the hard rock band AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was a member of AC ...

Roger Uttley Roger Miles Uttley (born 11 September 1949) OBE is a former English rugby union player. Career Uttley played 23 games for England both in the second row and the back row, five times as captain, and four tests in the Lions back row on the unde ...

Peter Dixon Peter-John Dixon (30 April 1944 – 2 August 2023) was an England international rugby union player. Dixon played for Oxford University RFC in four consecutive Varsity Matches from 1967 to 1970. He played for Cumberland at county level alo ...

* Jim Pollock (born 1958) Scottish International, Barbarian FC and Novocastrians Captain *Neil McDowell (England rugby) * Colin White * Steve Bainbridge * Duncan Madsen (14 caps for Scotland and Barbarians) * Mick Lazarus

Club Honours

* Durham/Northumberland 4 Champions 1996–97 * Durham/Northumberland 3 Champions 1997–98 *

champions (2): 1999–00, 2000–01 * Northumberland Senior Plate: 2005

References

External links

Gosforth RFC
{{Rugby union in England Newcastle Falcons Rugby clubs established in 1877 Rugby union teams in England Sport in Newcastle upon Tyne 1877 establishments in England Rugby union in Tyne and Wear