San Francisco Golden Gate 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 ...

club based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. SFGG's first side competes in the Northern California Rugby Football Union's Men's Division I, Women's Division II, and Pacific Rugby Premiership. The SFGG Youth Program includes high school Varsity, Junior Varsity, Frosh-Soph teams as well as U-12, U-10 and U-8 (non-contact) youth teams. SFGG also fields nationally competitive

Rugby Sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

squads over the summer. The SFGG Old Boys team, the Señors, feature in occasional matches.

History

SFGG Rugby was formed in 2001 from the merger of the San Francisco Rugby Club and the Golden Gate Rugby Club. The club won the 2009 and 2011 Rugby Super League championships defeating Life University in the final both times, by 23–13 and 20–5 respectively.

Ray Sheeran Field

San Francisco Golden Gate RFC leased land and a former PX building from the city of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

in the summer of 2005 for the purpose of building a field and clubhouse. The facility was opened in November 2005 with a Grand Banquet/Dedication featuring former All Black captain

Reuben Thorne Reuben David Thorne (born 2 January 1975) is a New Zealand rugby union player, and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks. Now involved with Big Brother Big Sister and is the Christ College first xv coach. Professional career and ...

and former US Eagle captain Dan Lyle. The pitch was formerly named for former club President and current Director Greg Rocca. In March 2011, the pitch was renamed to Ray Sheeran Field. Ray Sheeran Field hosted the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 USA Rugby National Club Sevens Championships.

Club honors

*Pacific Rugby Premiership ** Champions: 2014 * USA Rugby Elite Cup ** Champions: 2013 * Rugby Super League ** Champions: 2009,

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

** Runner-up: 2004, 2010 ** Semifinalists: 2007 * US Men's Division I **Semifinalists: 1996, 2000, 2010 ** Finalists: 1999

Notable players

Current players

''Players with international caps in bold.'' * Daniel La Prevotte * Aaron Latzke * Saimone Laulaupeaalu * Shaun Paga * Danny Barrett — flanker *

Patrick Latu Patrick Latu is an American professional rugby player who plays as a prop and was most recently the captain of the PRO Rugby team San Francisco Rush. Latu grew up in San Mateo, California, where he played rugby for the San Mateo Warriors and als ...

— San Francisco Rush captain * Volney Rouse — flyhalf * Mile Pulu — center * Tai Enosa — fullback

Former players

Internationally capped players are in bold. * Brian Barnard * Nathan Couch *

Tony Daly Tony Daly (born 7 March 1966 in West Pymble, Australia) is a former Australian rugby union footballer who represented Australia national rugby union team, Australia in 41 Test match (rugby union), Test matches. He played for Eastern Suburbs Dis ...

* Philippe Farner * Robbie Flynn * Oloseti Fifita * Fred Forster * Jay Hansen * Britt Howard * Seamus Kelly *

Mike MacDonald Michael Macdonald (born June 26, 1987) is an American professional American football, football coach who is the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the defensive coordinator for the B ...

* Samu Manoa * Fifita Mounga * Jone Naqica * Folau Niua *

Thretton Palamo Thretton Palamo (born September 22, 1988) is an American rugby union player who plays centre for Old Glory DC of Major League Rugby (MLR). When he appeared in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he became the youngest ever player to have played in the Rugb ...

— center *

Shawn Pittman Shawn Pittman (born January 22, 1988, in Bellingham, Washington, United States) is an American rugby union coach and former player. Pittman played prop for Old Puget Sound Beach and the United States Eagles. He played in the 2011 Rugby World ...

* Naima Reddick * Mark Scharrenberg *

Matt Sherman Matt Sherman (born October 29, 1978, in San Francisco, California) is a former American rugby union fly-half and current coach of the Army men's rugby team at the United States Military Academy. His ‘21/‘22 Army West Point squad won the D1A Na ...

* Paul Still * Grant Wells * Jay Wilkerson

Sponsorship

Notable primary sponsors include

CallidusCloud Callidus Software Inc., formerly CallidusCloud, is an enterprise software and software as a service (SaaS) company headquartered in Dublin, California. The company markets services for sales effectiveness, sales management and sales execution ...

and Canterbury of New Zealand. The club also has several secondary sponsorships from local and regional businesses.Official SFGG Sponsors
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References

External links

* {{California sports

Golden gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

Rugby clubs established in 2001 2001 establishments in California