2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga

2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga
Countries Germany
 Luxembourg
ChampionsHeidelberger RK (7th title)
Promotednone
RelegatedASV Köln Rugby
Top point scorerFabian Heimpel (225)
Top try scorerAlexander Pipa (22)

The 2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga was the 39th edition of this competition and the 90th edition of the German rugby union championship. Ten teams played a home-and-away season with a finals round between the top four teams at the end. The bottom two teams are relegated. The season started on 29 August 2009 and finished with the championship final on 29 May 2010, interrupted by a winter break from early December to late March.[1]

The competition's defending champion was SC 1880 Frankfurt, who won it in the previous two seasons. In the 2010 final, SC 1880 lost to Heidelberger RK, the previous seasons runners-up, which won its first championship since 1986 and its seventh overall. The final was drawn 22-all after regular time and was decided in extra time, where HRK scored 17 unanswered points to be crowned German champions of the men, already having won the 2010 women's final earlier that year. The 2010 final was contested by the two teams expected to do so at the start of the season, SC 1880 and HRK being the only two teams in Germany considered professional.[2] The final was considered to have been of high niveau, with long-term German Bundestrainer Peter Ianusevici declaring it the best German championship final he had ever watched.[3]

Below the Rugby-Bundesliga sat the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga, which is divided into two divisions with ten teams each. With the RC Luxembourg, a team from Luxembourg, a non-German side competed in the league in 2009-10. The inclusion of this side in the 2009 promotion round to the 2nd Bundesliga had caused some debate in regard to its legality, as the club had not qualified to do so through the German league system and was not a member of any of the German regional rugby federations. However, RC Luxembourg's application was declared valid in regard to the German Rugby Federation's rules and regulations and the team finished second in the promotion round, earning a place in the 2nd Bundesliga for 2009-10.[4]

Overview

[edit]

The 2009-10 modus was somewhat different from the previous season. The competition had been expanded from nine to ten teams. It marks the first time since introduction of the single-division Bundesliga in 2001, that ten teams competed in the league. This change of modus was decided upon on 19 July 2008 at the annual general meeting of the German rugby association, the DRV. It was decided to expand the league to ten teams for 2009-10. It was also then decided to introduce an extended play-off format.[5] All up, the number of season games in the Rugby-Bundesliga increases to 94 from 76.

Like in 2008-09, the top four teams qualified for the finals. The two semi-finals winners then contested the championship final.

At the bottom end of the table, nominally the last two teams were relegated while the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga champions are promoted, however, this was subject to the 2nd Bundesliga champions accepting promotion, which was not the case.

The defending champion in 2009-10 was SC 1880 Frankfurt, who beat Heidelberger RK in the 2008-09 final while the ASV Köln Rugby and DSV 78 Hannover were newly promoted to the league, having replaced the DRC Hannover. Suffering from a string of injuries, especially to its forward line, and heavy defeats during the season, ASV Köln Rugby made the decision in mid-April 2010, to withdraw from the Rugby-Bundesliga and not to play its five remaining matches. Köln thereby was automatically relegated from the league.[6]

In the 2nd Bundesliga, the winners of the two divisions were nominally promoted to the Bundesliga, unless they were reserve teams, in which case the right for promotion would have gone to the next-best non-reserve team. The bottom two teams in the 2nd Bundesliga faced the prospect of relegation to the Rugby-Regionalliga. In the South/West Division, the Karlsruher SV Rugby withdrew in March 2010, its record being expulsed.[7]

As a sign of the gap between the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga, TSV Victoria Linden, who only won the 2009-10 North/East division in the last round of the championship, declined promotion, citing the additional cost of travelling and the limited player pool as their reason. The South/West champion, Stuttgarter RC, has also indicated that it would not take up promotion because of the loss of eight first-team players at the end of the season, leaving the Bundesliga with only eight clubs for the next season. It also meant, for the first time ever, that no club from Hanover would compete at the top level of German rugby.[8][9]

DSV 78 protested the decision to reduce the league to eight teams again and thereby relegating the club.[10] For the 2nd Bundesliga, this also meant, only one team each would be promoted to the two regional divisions, in the North/East, this was SC Siemensstadt, the club being directly promoted, while, in the South/West, TV Pforzheim won the promotion tournament of the five southern Regionalliga champions in Nuremberg on 12 June 2010.[11]

Bundesliga table

[edit]
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Difference Points
1 SC 1880 Frankfurt 16 14 0 2 716 143 573 66
2 RG Heidelberg 16 11 2 3 512 307 205 57
3 Heidelberger RK 16 10 2 4 575 221 354 54
4 TSV Handschuhsheim 16 9 2 5 383 292 91 49
5 SC Neuenheim 16 9 1 6 347 320 27 47
6 Berliner Rugby Club 16 5 0 11 364 414 -50 29
7 RK 03 Berlin 16 5 1 10 259 589 -330 27
8 RK Heusenstamm 16 3 0 13 233 719 -486 14
9 DSV 78 Hannover 16 2 0 14 156 540 -384 10
10 ASV Köln Rugby 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Bundesliga results

[edit]
Club SCF RGH HRK TSV SCN BRC RKB RKH DSV ASV
SC 1880 Frankfurt 40-6 33-16 29-6 20-23 23-14 59-8 84-0 68-5 50-0
RG Heidelberg 23-9 31-24 16-20 22-28 48-12 68-3 50-18 51-9 0-0
Heidelberger RK 3-5 34-34 16-12 20-20 27-13 61-5 43-3 74-10 65-0
TSV Handschuhsheim 15-22 13-13 7-37 23-20 25-11 10-10 38-24 33-8 59-0
SC Neuenheim 0-28 23-31 6-29 27-20 26-17 24-7 43-10 25-16 81-0
Berliner RC 5-94 12-18 25-17 10-14 18-20 51-19 77-21 39-5 0-0
RK 03 Berlin 12-57 26-39 7-73 19-61 17-12 23-18 36-19 34-3 51-10
RK Heusenstamm 7-102 21-34 10-63 12-54 14-29 19-17 31-28 24-18 25-15
DSV 78 Hannover 0-43 15-28 0-38 18-32 28-21 15-25 3-5 3-0 0-0
ASV Köln Rugby 0-0 0-77 0-0 8-79 5-53 3-24 0-97 3-49 0-22
  • ASV Köln Rugby played 13 of its 18 scheduled matches before withdrawing, results were later expulsed from the record.

Key

[edit]
Home win Draw Away win Game not played

Player statistics

[edit]

Try scorers

[edit]

The leading try scores in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2009–10 season were (10 tries or more):

Player Club Tries
Germany Alexander Pipa TSV Handschuhsheim 22
Zimbabwe Manasah Sita SC Neuenheim 19
South Africa Pieter Johannes Jordaan Heidelberger RK 19
New Zealand Caine Elisara Heidelberger RK 19
Germany Bastian Himmer RG Heidelberg 15
Germany Mark Sztyndera SC 1880 Frankfurt 13
Germany Colin Grzanna Berliner RC 13
New Zealand Keiran Manawatu SC 1880 Frankfurt 13
Germany Christian Lill RK 03 Berlin 11
Germany Marten Strauch SC Neuenheim 11
New Zealand Jason Campell SC 1880 Frankfurt 10
Germany Tom Schilling RK 03 Berlin 10
Australia Sean Armstrong Heidelberger RK 10

Point scorers

[edit]

The leading point scores in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2009–10 season were (100 points or more):

Player Club Points
Germany Fabian Heimpel RG Heidelberg 225
Germany Mark Sztyndera SC 1880 Frankfurt 133
Germany Thorsten Wiedemann Heidelberger RK 128
New Zealand Keiran Manawatu SC 1880 Frankfurt 128
Germany Pascal Schuster RK Heusenstamm 115
Germany Matthias Pipa TSV Handschuhsheim 113
Germany Colin Grzanna Berliner RC 111
Germany Alexander Pipa TSV Handschuhsheim 110

Per club

[edit]

The top try and point scorers per club were:

Club Player Tries Player Points
Berliner RC[13] Germany Colin Grzanna 13 Germany Colin Grzanna 111
RK 03 Berlin[14] Germany Christian Lill 11 Germany Marc Lowdon 96
SC 1880 Frankfurt[15] Germany Mark Sztyndera 13 Germany Mark Sztyndera 133
TSV Handschuhsheim[16] Germany Alexander Pipa 22 Germany Matthias Pipa 113
DSV 78 Hannover[17] Germany Benjamin Simm 4 Germany Marvin Dieckmann 67
RG Heidelberg[18] Germany Bastian Himmer 15 Germany Fabian Heimpel 225
Heidelberger RK[19] South Africa Pieter Johannes Jordaan
New Zealand Caine Elisara
19 Germany Thorsten Wiedemann 128
RK Heusenstamm[20] Germany Torsten Krapscha 5 Germany Pascal Schuster 115
ASV Köln Rugby[21] Seven players 1 Germany Tobias Sylvester 11
SC Neuenheim[22] Zimbabwe Manasah Sita 19 Germany Lars Eckert 56

Semi-finals and final

[edit]

Semi-finals

[edit]
2010-05-22
15:00
RG Heidelberg15 – 36Heidelberger RK
Try: Himmer (2) 72', 80'
Con: Heimpel 80'
Pen: Heimpel 10'
ReportTry: Armstrong, Liebig (2), Elisara
Con: Hamstra (2)
Pen: Hamstra (3)
Drop: Hamstra
Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark, Heidelberg
Attendance: 900
Referee: Dana Teargarden

2010-05-23
15:00
SC 1880 Frankfurt27 – 16TSV Handschuhsheim
Try: Manawatu 15', Hauck 75'
Con: Manawatu 76'
Pen: Manawatu (5)
ReportTry: Wetzel 35'
Con: Pipa 35'
Pen: Pipa (3) 15', 40', 49'
Sportanlage an der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main
Attendance: 800
Referee: Dana Teargarden

Final

[edit]
2010-05-29
14:00
SC 1880 Frankfurt22 – 39 (aet)Heidelberger RK
Try: Porter 47'
Con: Manawatu 47'
Pen: Manawatu (5) 21', 33', 60', 75', 80'+
ReportTry: Liebig 54', Hamstra 68', Jordaan 81', Keinhorst 98'
Con: Hamstra (2) 81', 98'
Pen: Hamstra (4) 20', 51', 65', 88'
Drop: Jordaan 34'
Sportanlage an der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main
Attendance: 1,800
Referee: Frank Himmer
SC 1880 FRANKFURT:
FB 15 Anton Ewald downward-facing red arrow 51'
RW 14 Keiran Manawatu
OC 13 Mark Sztyndera downward-facing red arrow 106'
IC 12 Graham Smith
LW 11 Sam Leung-Wai
FH 10 Jason Campell
SH 9 Dennis Feidelberg
N8 8 Ross Warrick yellow card 65' to 75'
OF 7 Andrew Porter
BF 6 Alexander Hauck downward-facing red arrow 110'
RL 5 Daniel Preussner downward-facing red arrow 51'
LL 4 Rolf Wacha downward-facing red arrow 84'
TP 3 Sam Biddles
HK 2 Michael Howells
LP 1 Syd Douglas
Substitutes:
RL Chad Slaby upward-facing green arrow 51'
FB Bevan Gray upward-facing green arrow 51' downward-facing red arrow 94'
N8 Andrew Shaw upward-facing green arrow 94'
FB Erik Podzuweit upward-facing green arrow 94'
OC Alexander Berwing upward-facing green arrow 106'
BF Rico Schomacker upward-facing green arrow 110'
Coach:
New Zealand Aaron Satchwell
HEIDELBERGER RK:
FB 15 James Keinhorst downward-facing red arrow 110'
RW 14 Christopher Neureuther
OC 13 Steffen Liebig downward-facing red arrow 105'
IC 12 Pieter Johannes Jordaan
LW 11 Anjo Buckman downward-facing red arrow 71'
FH 10 Carlin Hamstra
SH 9 Sean Armstrong
N8 8 Manuel Ballerin downward-facing red arrow 55'
OF 7 Carlo Schmidt downward-facing red arrow 51'
BF 6 Caine Elisara
RL 5 Julio David Rodriguez
LL 4 Dan Armitage
TP 3 Patrick Schliwa downward-facing red arrow 75'
HK 2 Alexander Biskupek
LP 1 Arthur Zeiler
Substitutes:
OF Sydney Brenner upward-facing green arrow 51'
N8 Ben Dubykupward-facing green arrow 55'
LW Christopher Liebig upward-facing green arrow 71'
TP Alexander Wiedemann upward-facing green arrow 75' downward-facing red arrow 105'
TP Benedikt Rehm upward-facing green arrow 105'
OC Andreas Götz upward-facing green arrow 105'
FB Erkut Leventdurmus upward-facing green arrow 110'
Coach:
Australia Murray Archibald

2nd Bundesliga tables

[edit]

South/West

[edit]
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Difference Points
1 Stuttgarter RC 16 13 0 3 610 194 416 63
2 München RFC 16 12 1 3 424 258 166 58
3 RC Luxembourg 16 12 0 4 309 245 64 53
4 RG Heidelberg II 16 8 0 8 311 294 17 41
5 SC 1880 Frankfurt II 16 6 0 10 374 328 46 34
6 StuSta München 16 7 1 8 298 391 -93 34
7 TSV Handschuhsheim II 16 5 0 11 243 328 -85 25
8 Heidelberger RK II 16 5 0 11 202 451 -249 17
9 RC Mainz 16 3 0 13 230 512 -282 17
10 Karlsruher SV Rugby 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

North/East

[edit]
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Difference Points
1 TSV Victoria Linden 178 16 0 2 656 202 454 76
2 USV Potsdam 18 15 0 3 838 193 645 74
3 RU Hohen Neuendorf 18 13 0 5 614 243 371 63
4 FC St Pauli Rugby 18 12 0 6 592 251 341 62
5 SG SV Odin/VfR Döhren 18 11 0 7 412 325 87 49
6 SC Germania List 18 9 1 8 333 465 -132 44
7 DRC Hannover 18 6 0 12 291 486 -195 31
8 Berliner RC II 18 4 0 14 236 682 -446 18
9 FT Adler Kiel Rugby 18 3 0 15 151 736 -585 13
10 Hamburger RC 18 0 1 17 147 687 -540 4

2nd Bundesliga final

[edit]
2010-05-29
12:00
TSV Victoria Linden10 – 59Stuttgarter RC
Sportplatz an der Feldgerichtstraße, Frankfurt am Main

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Rugby Spielpläne - 2009-10 - 1. Bundesliga (in German) rugbyweb.de, accessed: 18 March 2010
  2. ^ Société Générale Endspieltag: SC 80 vor Titel-Hattrick[permanent dead link] (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 28 May 2010, accessed: 30 May 2010
  3. ^ Heidelberger RK deutscher Meister 2010[permanent dead link] (in German) Rugby-Journal, published: 29 May 2010, accessed: 30 May 2010
  4. ^ Karlsruhe und Luxemburg steigen in die 2.Liga Süd auf (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 6 July 2009, accessed: 19 March 2010
  5. ^ DRT beschließt Reform des Spielbetriebs Archived 2008-09-17 at the Wayback Machine (in German) Rugby Journal - Reforms 2008, accessed: 7 January 2009
  6. ^ a b ASV Köln verkündet Rückzug aus der Rugbybundesliga (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 16 April 2010, accessed: 17 April 2010
  7. ^ a b TotalRugby Review 2. Bundesliga: 12. Spieltag (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 28 March 2010, accessed: 30 March 2010
  8. ^ Victoria Linden verzichtet auf den Bundesligaaufstieg (in German), totalrugby.de, published: 27 May 2010, accessed: 29 May 2010
  9. ^ RC gewinnt Zweitligameisterschaft - verzichtet aber dennoch auf den Aufstieg[permanent dead link] (in German), totalrugby.de, published: 31 May 2010, accessed: 1 June 2010
  10. ^ Abstieg von Hannover 78 besiegelt - Bundesligasaison 2010/2011 mit nur 8 Mannschaften (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 8 June 2010. accessed: 14 June 2010
  11. ^ TV Pforzheim gewinnt das Aufstiegsturnier zur 2. Bundesliga Süd (in German) totalrugby.de, published: 13 June 2010. accessed: 14 June 2010
  12. ^ The two regional 2nd Bundesliga champions declined promotion.
  13. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader Berliner RC (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  14. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader RK 03 Berlin (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  15. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader SC 1880 Frankfurt (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  16. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader TSV Handschuhsheim (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  17. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader DSV 78 Hannover (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  18. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader RG Heidelberg (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  19. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader Heidelberger RK (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  20. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader RK Heusenstamm (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  21. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader ASV Köln (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
  22. ^ 1. Bundesliga 2009/2010 - Mannschaftskader SC Neuenheim (in German) totalrugby.de, accessed: 18 May 2010
[edit]