Bath

Bath Rugby Club is one of the oldest rugby clubs in existence. In fact, the history of the club dates all the way back to the actions of Lansdown Cricket Club in 1825. The cricket club was incredibly popular but the team only met in summer when the weather was warm enough to play cricket. Searching for something to do in the colder winter months, the cricketers founded Bath Rugby Club.

Read on to learn even more about Bath Rugby. On this page, you'll find all the latest news about the side and you'll also be able to see a full list of the upcoming Bath Rugby fixtures

At first the Bath Rugby team played sporadically. However, by the 1890s, the team was regularly playing competitive fixtures against a number of English and Welsh teams. However, the Bath Rugby team did not tour overseas until 1954 when they visited France and beat all three sides they faced.

In the 1960s and 70s, Bath Rugby gained a reputation as a team with a fast-paced and attacking style of rugby. Not only did the club produce top players like Peter Sibley and Peter Heindorff, but Bath also started regularly beating top Welsh sides. Then, in 1978, the arrival of coach Jack Rowell changed the team's ethos. Instead of simply picking local players, the team started recruiting from all over the country. As a result, Bath dominated the John Player Cup and won the tournament four years in a row between 1984 and 1987.

Following the team's 1987 success, a formal league structure started. As expected, Bath dominated the early years of the competition. They won it six times in eight years and did the 'double' four times.

Since rugby union became a professional sport, Bath have been unable to repeat the same level of success they experienced as an amateur side. In fact, the team has only finished at the top of the leaderboard in the Premiership on one occasion (2003-04) and they have never won the competition. Plus, the Bath Rugby team also last won the Heineken Champions Cup in 1997-98 and have only won the European Rugby Challenge Cup once, in 2007-08.

In spite of this though, Bath are still a storied English side. In fact, even though they usually play at The Recreation Ground, the team is so popular that every year one of the Bath Rugby fixtures is held at Twickenham and more than 60,000 people usually attend.

Similarly, over the past 20 years, some of rugby union's finest players have donned a Bath Rugby shirt. At present, several established international stars also play for the side, including Taulupe Faletau, Sam Underhill and Jonathan Joseph.