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GO Rugby in Manchester |
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You may think
the only team sport worth watching in Manchester is
football but you would be very wrong indeed. Another favourite amongst Mancunians is rugby so it’s a good job the city has its fair share of the country’s top rugby league and union clubs. Catching a home game of the Salford City Reds has been a favourite past time for hundreds of local residents. The club actually started out as Salford Rugby League Football Club and was founded in 1873 by boys attending the Cavendish Street Chapel in Hulme, Manchester. Using a local field, the boys organised matches amongst themselves before transferring to nearby Moss Side. As the years passed, Salford started bringing home trophies and kept drawing in the crowds, but it was dawning of Super League in 1996 that saw the team take its rightful place as one of the best rugby clubs in the country. If it’s rugby league you’re into then there are other Super League teams to watch in less than an hour’s drive from Manchester, including the Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors. Warrington Wolves as they are known today grew from several amalgamations from within the town’s boundaries, evolving as the years passed. It was the local wirepullers from the factory that made up the majority of the team when Warrington Rugby League Football Club was first founded, with their families making up the supporters. But with the birth of the Super League and Summer Rugby, from a deal worth £87 million from Rupert Murdoch’s News International company, the Warrington Wolves found themselves much more accessible to families and children. Now, the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington is packed out on match days with people hoping to get a glimpse of the players, who have instantly become stars. Another Super League club worth watching if you get the chance is the Wigan Warriors, who play at the famous JJB Stadium in the heart of the town. Wigan Warriors Rugby League Football Club is now established as one of the most famous and successful sports club’s in the world, growing from very humble beginnings. The town’s first rugby club was Wigan F.C. founded in 1872 by a group of members of the town’s Cricket Club. However, due to financial difficulties the club was disbanded a few years later. In 1879 a new club, Wigan Wasps, was formed and this has evolved into the Wigan Warriors Rugby League Club we now know today. Among the club’s honours are a record 17 league championships, which cover most of the 1990s, and the team has also won a record 17 Challenge Cup finals. If you’re more into the world of rugby union, then you’re in luck because Manchester also has its own union club, Sale Sharks. The club from which the Sharks developed was founded in 1861 and is one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world. Throughout its history it was one of the leading clubs in the North of England and, since the game went professional, has become one of the major players in the English game. Among the club’s hall of fame are many national players including current hotshot Jason ‘Billy Whizz’ Robinson, who quit league rugby to play union for Sale and England. Sale Sharks now actually play at Edgeley Park in Stockport, home to Stockport County Football Club, but the pride in their home town Sale remains as strong as ever. |
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