2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga

2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga
Countries	Germany  Luxembourg
Champions	Heidelberger RK (7th title)
Promoted	none
Relegated	ASV Köln Rugby
Top point scorer	Fabian Heimpel (225)
Top try scorer	Alexander Pipa (22)
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

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]

Berliner RC

RK 03 Berlin

DSV 78 Hannover

RG Heidelberg
Heidelberger RK
TSV Handschuhsheim
SC Neuenheim

RK Heusenstamm

SC Frankfurt

ASV Köln Rugby

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Location of teams in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2009-10

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]

• Relegated: ASV Köln Rugby
• Promoted: None ^[12]
• ASV Köln Rugby withdrew in April 2010, its record being expulsed.^[6]

• ASV Köln Rugby played 13 of its 18 scheduled matches before withdrawing, results were later expulsed from the record.

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

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

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

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

The top try and point scorers per club were:

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

SC 1880 FRANKFURT: FB 15 Anton Ewald  51' RW 14 Keiran Manawatu OC 13 Mark Sztyndera  106' IC 12 Graham Smith LW 11 Sam Leung-Wai FH 10 Jason Campell SH 9 Dennis Feidelberg N8 8 Ross Warrick 65' to 75' OF 7 Andrew Porter BF 6 Alexander Hauck  110' RL 5 Daniel Preussner  51' LL 4 Rolf Wacha  84' TP 3 Sam Biddles HK 2 Michael Howells LP 1 Syd Douglas Substitutes: RL Chad Slaby  51' FB Bevan Gray  51'  94' N8 Andrew Shaw  94' FB Erik Podzuweit  94' OC Alexander Berwing  106' BF Rico Schomacker  110' Coach: Aaron Satchwell

HEIDELBERGER RK: FB 15 James Keinhorst  110' RW 14 Christopher Neureuther OC 13 Steffen Liebig  105' IC 12 Pieter Johannes Jordaan LW 11 Anjo Buckman  71' FH 10 Carlin Hamstra SH 9 Sean Armstrong N8 8 Manuel Ballerin  55' OF 7 Carlo Schmidt  51' BF 6 Caine Elisara RL 5 Julio David Rodriguez LL 4 Dan Armitage TP 3 Patrick Schliwa  75' HK 2 Alexander Biskupek LP 1 Arthur Zeiler Substitutes: OF Sydney Brenner  51' N8 Ben Dubyk 55' LW Christopher Liebig  71' TP Alexander Wiedemann  75'  105' TP Benedikt Rehm  105' OC Andreas Götz  105' FB Erkut Leventdurmus  110' Coach: Murray Archibald

• Promoted to Bundesliga: None
• Relegated from Bundesliga: ASV Köln Rugby
• Relegated from 2nd Bundesliga: Karlsruher SV Rugby, RC Mainz
• Promoted to 2nd Bundesliga: TV Pforzheim
• Karlsruher SV Rugby withdrew in March 2010, its record being expulsed.^[7]

• Promoted to Bundesliga: None
• Relegated from Bundesliga: None
• Relegated from 2nd Bundesliga: FT Adler Kiel Rugby
• Promoted to 2nd Bundesliga: SC Siemensstadt

• rugbyweb.de - Rugby-Bundesliga table & results (in German)
• Rugby-Journal - Bundesliga table & results (in German)
• Totalrugby.de - Bundesliga table & results (in German)