West Hartlepool R.F.C.

54°40′35″N 1°14′5″W

West Hartlepool

Full name	West Hartlepool Rugby Football Club
Union	Durham County RFU
Founded	1881; 144 years ago (1881)
Location	Hartlepool, County Durham, England
Ground(s)	Brinkburn (Capacity: 2,000 (76 seats))
Coach(es)	Chris Webb (Webby) Peter Youll Andrew Rollins (Rollo) Andrew Turner
League(s)	Regional 2 North
2024–25	4th
Team kit
Official website
official.sportnetwork.net/main/west-hartlepool--official/s16.htm

West Hartlepool Rugby Football Club (nicknamed West) is an English rugby union club who play in Regional 2 North in the sixth tier of the English rugby union system.

History

West Hartlepool Rugby Football Club was formed in 1881.

• Official Club History

Before the game turned professional, the club enjoyed several seasons in the Courage League and Allied Dunbar premiership during the 1990s^[1] before finally being relegated in the 1998–99 season. There followed a drop through the divisions over the next three years that took them out of the national leagues and into the regional leagues.^[2]

In the 1990s, when the club was at its peak positions they played at Brierton Lane. When the ground was sold they entered into one year ground share agreements, first with Hartlepool United Football Club at Victoria Park and then with Hartlepool Rovers RFC.

The club's Junior Section then went on to play at West Hartlepool Technical Day School Old Boys RUFC (Tech) for a few years and in the early 2000s there was an agreement with the Hartlepool Sixth Form College for the whole club to play at Brinkburn which is located on Catcote Road.

Honours

• Durham Senior Cup winners (15): 1900, 1902, 1904, 1949, 1952, 1955, 1971, 1972, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 2015
• Courage National 3 champions 1990–91
• North Division 1 East champions (2): 2007–08, 2010–11
• Durham/Northumberland 1 v Yorkshire 1 promotion play-off winners: 2018–19

Club structure

West have two Senior Teams within the club.

• 1st team
• 2nd team (Stags)
• Vets Team
• Walking Rugby Team

International honours

Nationality	Player	Honours
	Carl Aarvold	England
	Sammy Morfitt	England
	Tim Stimpson	England (and British & Irish Lions)
	Jack Taylor	England (captain)
	Rob Wainwright	Scotland (captain) (and British & Irish Lions)
	Leonard West	Scotland
	Mike Mullins	Ireland
	Alan Whetton (AJ)	New Zealand
	Gary Whetton	New Zealand (Captain)
	Mike Brewer	New Zealand
	Troy Jaques	Australia
	Jim Williams	Australia

Other international honours

Nationality	Player	Honours
	Sean Dougall	Ireland U18s, U19s & U20s
	Micky Young	England U-16 & U-18, England Sevens and England Saxons
	Chris Murphy	England Colts, England Students, U-21 (Captain) & England A
	Simon Mitchell	England A

Mini and junior

West have a very successful mini & junior set up with teams from Little Deers to under-18 with a large percentage going on to represent Durham County & The North.

West Little Deers we’re introduced in 2017 and are for children aged 2–6 – introducing them to Rugby.

Rivals

In the 1990s when West Hartlepool were in the top leagues there was a rivalry with Newcastle Gosforth (now the Newcastle Falcons). However the real derby matches were with Hartlepool Rovers. Even though Rovers have always been in lower league, the historical Boxing Day match between the sides has continued and Rovers have always given West Hartlepool good competitive matches, beating West in the 2008 Boxing Day derby but West have won all the other years. In recent years the games have come down to the last few seconds or injury time before the eventual winners were known, with side line conversions winning or losing matches.