Liverpool St Helens RUFC

Liverpool St Helens Football Club is a rugby union team who play in the North 2 West league. They are not to be confused with either Liverpool Football Club (playing soccer) or St Helens RLFC (playing rugby league).

## History[edit]

The modern club were formed from the merger of Liverpool Football Club and St Helens RUFC.

Liverpool FC's first match took place in 1857 when old boys from Rugby school challenged local boys to a game under their school rules. Liverpool Football Club were then formed, the oldest open rugby club in the World.

The team soon establihed themselves as a powerhouse of the Victorian era. In 1871, the club provided four of the England team that played Scotland in the first ever rugby international. During the formation of the Nortnern Football Union, LSH remained witrh the Rugby Football Union. In Liverpool, soccer was soon to become the dominant sport, with soccer clubs such as Liverpool FC and Everton FC.

St. Helens RUFC was founded in 1919 as St. Helens Old Boys, the original membership being predominantly made up of former pupils of Cowley School.

Liverpool and St. Helens merged in 1986 and played at Moss Lane which had been the St. Helens club’s ground. In the 1990s the club sank to Division Four and spent virtually the whole of the 1990s coming to terms with the professional era.

## International Caps[edit]

* England unless stated otherwise

Ronnie Poulton-Palmer

F.H. Turner (Scotland)

R.A. Lloyd (Ireland)

Alan Ashcroft

Ray French

Nigel Heslop

John Horton

Fran Cotton

Maurice Colclough

Mike Slemen

Kevin Simms

## External links[edit]

* Official site