Sunderland RFC has been ‘on the go’ for almost one hundred and forty years. The letters RFC behind the club name tell the tale; quite simply, the club was formed some years before ‘union’ and ‘league’ separated in the 1890s causing clubs starting thereafter to be designated RUFC and RLFC.

In fact the archives at Ashbrooke, (the club’s home ground since 1887), show Sunderland’s rugby club to have been known as Sunderland FC both before and after the ‘internationally famous’ Sunderland AFC was formed in 1879. SRFC was formed in 1873 and an annual dinner ticket for 1876 describes the rugby club as Sunderland Foot-ball Club. In 1882, a membership card is headed simply Sunderland Football Club. Ironically in that year, the rugby lads were playing on a ground on Chester Road while the soccer team was on a field which, we suspect, now forms part of the modern Ashbrooke Ground!

In the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods, Sunderland RFC was one of the most significant clubs in the north of England. The First XV won the first ever Durham County Cup and a wonderful hand tinted photograph of the side clearly shows one team member sporting an England cap. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the club was massively strong and its players also provided the backbone for a hugely successful Durham County side. One fairly casual picture of the First XV seated on the pavilion steps features three England players – two of whom played in home internationals and the other who featured on a tour abroad. Missing from the picture is a fourth England international. About this time, a number of Sunderland players were also chosen to play for the Barbarians and, at one point, two brothers from the club played beside each other for the Ba Ba’s as wing and centre.

Between the wars, the club enjoyed a couple of successful county cup runs but also saw the appearance in their ranks of three players – Hartley Elliott, Alan Bean and Eric Watt Moses – all of whom were later to put their individual stamps on the national and international game. Hartley, an Ashbrooke man through and through, became a well-respected international referee in the 1950s, helped in the production of some of Britain’s top rugby coaches and also founded the Dolphins touring side. Alan and Eric became top administrators in the RFU and both became well known for their writings on the laws and the refereeing of the game.

The history of SRFC up to the early 1960s has been well chronicled and notes a number of sad losses in wartime and another memorable county cup success in the late 1950s. The story of the next fifty years should be in print by 2012 (‘Fifty Years On’) but is bound to include the huge growth in mini and junior rugby from the 1980s and a number of welcome First XV successes under the new league system.

In 2010, Sunderland RFC remains a friendly and sociable club and part of a much wider Ashbrooke set up which embraces the bowls, tennis, hockey, rugby and cricket clubs of the City of Sunderland. In the professional era, it also continues to acknowledge many of the qualities, which make rugby football a hobby, which can be enjoyed by all, and sundry.

Keith Gregson (Ashbrooke Archivist)