History

The Birth of Rugby Union in Egremont

Faced with such raw history, it is tempting to endow the organisers and players of the game with prodigious foresight. Imagine their reaction had they been given the vision to sense just a little of the drama and pleasure, of the success and disappointment and of the humour, sadness and emotions that have all accompanied the club for more than 120 years. An era during which two world-wars and two devastating economic depressions have, each in turn, first threatened but finally failed to bring about the club's downfall. Above all, could those 19th century sportsmen have possibly imagined how their apparently insignificant actions was, over the scan of time, to be responsible for so very many lifelong friendships, friendships founded and subsequently cemented both on and off the field of play. The very essence of Rugby Union and the one thing that sets it above and apart from all other games.

The Egremont Athletic Club had been functioning for a number of years prior to 1878. The subsequent diversification in its activities was at first slow to develop.

One reason was there were not so many clubs around to play; another reason was the absence of cars and buses, which presented severe travelling problems. Activities were confined basically to scratch games within the club itself with only the occasional outside fixture being played. However, little time was lost in arranging the very first fixture after that inaugural village "trial" game and this was played away to St Bees village on the 21st November 1878. The result recorded as a win to Egremont by 3 tries and 5 minor points to nil.

After such a bright beginning it is unfortunate that detail of the next few years should be sparse with only the occasional mention of fixture arrangements and the infrequent match report available to show that the club was still functioning. What is clear is that the matches being playing were at a second tier level in relation to county rugby at that time. Fixtures were being mainly confined to village teams such as St Bees, Hensingham and Whitehaven Victoria. What must have been particularly galling to the club organisers of the time was that there were a number of Egremont players performing very successfully for other teams. Clearly, parochial persuasion was aboard and one can almost sense the triumph embodied in a report in the Whitehaven News at the beginning of the 1886-87 season. This stated that the Egremont Athletic Club had recruited a number of the Town's players who, until that date, formerly represented other clubs and that they were now "a force to be reckoned with".