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Ards RFC

Irish rugby union club, based in Newtownards, Co.Down

Field	Value
teamname	Ards RFC
fullname	Ards Rugby Football Club
union	IRFU
Ulster
nickname	Black Knights
founded
ground	Hamilton Park, Newtownards
countryflag	Northern Ireland
countryflagvar	Rugby
president	Iain Moles
rugby director	Stephen Nutt
coach	Palmer Eccles and David Thompson
captain	Robbie Johnston
pattern_la1	_whiteborder
pattern_b1	_whitecollar
pattern_ra1	_whiteborder
pattern_so1	_whitetop
leftarm1	000000
body1	000000
rightarm1	000000
shorts1	000000
socks1	000000

Ulster

Ards RFC (Ards Rugby Football Club) is a rugby union club based in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, playing in the Ulster Rugby Championship Division 2. It is affiliated to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The club currently fields three adult teams and a women's team, North Down Women, who are a combination of players from Ards, Bangor and Donaghadee. Three youth teams also play at under-18, under-16 and under-14 levels. There is also a rapidly developing girls' junior section and a very successful mini rugby section in the club. The club works in close collaboration with local schools such as Regent House Grammar School, Movilla High School and Strangford College who provide much of the playing talent at the club.

Foundation

On 11 April 1928, Ards Rugby Football Club was formed at a meeting in Newtownards Academy pavilion. The first competitive game was played on 13 October 1928. Ards RFC played most of their early years in the Ulster Junior Leagues.

Senior Status

In the 1961-62 season Ards won the Towns Cup for the first time captained by Bobby Haslett. In 1977-1978 season Ards achieved senior status when they gained promotion to the Ulster Senior League by defeating Ballymena 2nd XV 12-0 in an Ulster League Section 2 playoff at Shane Park, Instonians. After a downturn in fortunes in the 1990s Ards were relegated from senior rugby for the 2000–2001 season to Qualifying League Section 1. However, in the 2002-2003 season Ards won the AIB All Ireland Qualifying Round Robin playoff and were promoted for a second time to the All-Ireland League. In 2015 Ards were relegated from the All-Ireland League and now play in the Ulster Rugby Championship Division 2.

Honours

Boston Floodlit Cup, Bangor: 1 1976-77

Ulster Senior Cup: 2
- 1984-85, 1986–87
Ulster Senior League: 1
- 1983-84
Ulster Towns Cup: 2
- 1961-62, 2002–03
Ulster Junior Cup: 1
- 1976-77
Ulster Junior League 1: 3
- 1971-72, 1974-75, 1977-78
Qualifying League 1: 1
- 2002-03
Ulster Junior Shield: 1
- 2025-26

Notable Former Players

Internationals

;British and Irish Lions British and Irish Lions

;

;

Scott Robertson

Source:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/ards/a/history-8456.html?page=5

References

"The Ards Internationals". www.ardsrugby.co.uk.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

rugby-union-teams-in-northern-ireland rugby-union-teams-in-ireland rugby-clubs-established-in-1928 sport-in-newtownards rugby-union-teams-in-county-down

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