The Rugby Club Unterföhring is a German rugby union club from Munich district, currently playing in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga and with a second team in the Verbandsliga Bayern. It is based in Unterföhring, the closest suburb to Munich city centre. Since January 2017 the RCU is the second biggest rugby club in Bavaria with 240 members.[1]
Also Unterföhring was the smallest municipality in Germany with its own rugby union club[2] from 2012 until 2016.[3]
After the promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in 2016/17 Unterföhring is the only village (German: Gemeinde) in the history of German rugby to have ever played in a Bundesliga. All other clubs where always based in towns or cities (German: Stadt) or army bases.
The RCU also has a growing youth section and the club is the fourth biggest club with kids under 14 years old in all of Germany.[4] The RCU has secured championships in the Under 8, Under 10 and Under 12 age groups in recent years, as well as runners-up in U8, U10, U12 and U14. The RCU youth teams are known for consistently being able to field complete sides in the Bavarian youth competition.
Founded in 2016 the RCU also has a women's team playing in the Deutsche 7er-Liga Frauen Süd. For the season 2022/23 the aim of the first Men's team was to achieve a ranking in the top 3 at the end of the 2. Bundesliga season.[5] They had success and reached 2nd place at the end of the season and qualified for the promotion match for 1st Bundesliga South/West against RSV Köln in Cologne which RCU unfortunately lost. Still a very successful season, taken into account the club only exists for 11 years.
Youth summer camps
In summer 2022 former All BlackKane Hames held a summer camp in Unterföhring with 25 junior players attending. On February 23, 2023, the club announced that they will hold again a summer camp for youth players from age 7 to age 17 in Unterföhring. This time Robert Mohr, former player and current Director of Rugby at Stade Rochalais and former German Rugby International visited Unterföhring and conducted two out of four days at the training camp from July 31 to August 4 in Unterföhring.[6]
Facilities
The RCU plays their home games on the rugby pitch in Unterföhring am Etzweg.
