2011–12 Rugby-Bundesliga


The 2011–12 Rugby-Bundesliga was the 41st edition of this competition and the 92nd edition of the German rugby union championship. In the Rugby-Bundesliga, the first division, ten teams played a home-and-away season with semi-finals and a final between the top four teams at the end. The season started on 27 August 2010 and finished with the championship final on 5 May 2012, interrupted by a winter break from mid-December to late February. The league's top try scorer was Caine Elisara for the second year running while Luke James Muggeridge took out the honours of best points scorer for the first time. Both are from New Zealand and played for Heidelberger RK.
The league was won by Heidelberger RK who defeated TV Pforzheim 20-16 to earn its third consecutive title. TV Pforzheim played in its first-ever German championship final, having defeated SC 1880 Frankfurt 46–25 in the semi-finals. Frankfurt had played in the previous five finals and won the championship in 2008 and 2009. The second semi-final was played between HRK and SC Neuenheim with the former winning 71–21.
In the second tier, the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga, FC St. Pauli Rugby and the reserve team of SC 1880 Frankfurt took out the division titles, with SC 1880 Frankfurt II taking out the overall title with a 32–22 finals victory.
Both divisions of the 2nd Bundesliga played with only nine instead of ten clubs. The South/West division lost RG Heidelberg II just before the start of the season when the club decided to withdraw its reserve team to the third division while the reserve team of Berliner Rugby Club was withdrawn during the season. RU Hohen Neuendorf was expulsed from the league during the season for falling to field in two games without adequate excuse. TSV Handschuhsheim II was punished the same way for the same reason after the season had ended, with both of the teams being relegated.
In mid-July 2012 the Deutsche Rugby Tag, the annual general meeting of the DRV decided to approve a league reform proposed by German international Manuel Wilhelm. The new system will see the number of clubs in the Bundesliga increased from ten to 24 in 2012–13, the league divided into four regional divisions of six clubs each and the finals series expanded from four to eight teams. One of the main aims of the reform was to reduce the number of kilometres traveled by individual teams and therefore reduce the travel expenses. Additionally, the 2nd Bundesliga will also expanded to 24 teams.

Bundesliga table

The final standings in the table:
ClubPlayedWonDrawnLostPoints forPoints againstDifferenceBonuspointsPoints
1Heidelberger RK18170111002098911785
2SC 1880 Frankfurt1815038372755621474
3TV Pforzheim1815128343484861474
4SC Neuenheim181107469390791054
5TSV Handschuhsheim18819511593-821448
6RG Heidelberg187110327507-180432
7DSV 78 Hannover185112278629-351628
8RK 03 Berlin185013372898-526627
9Berliner Rugby Club182016321653-332917
10RK Heusenstamm183015283830-547416

The results of the Bundesliga in 2011–12:
ClubHRKSCFTVPSCNTSVRGHDSVRKBBRCRKH
Heidelberger RK—22–1924–1734–3147–1245–5102–0109–750–099–0
SC 1880 Frankfurt26–39—49–730–038–1448–2371–12120–030–1582–0
TV Pforzheim26–2427–17—37–2062–3967–2160–18104–2454–741–7
SC Neuenheim32–3315–2411–20—26–2215–1633–1571–1427–1029–8
TSV Handschuhsheim10–5819–3627–3426–29—20–2227–1147–1736–1745–3
RG Heidelberg26–4614–3727–2721–2410–32—31–021–720–1310–26
DSV 78 Hannover7–4112–5911–4117–2234–3423–11—33–022–1613–12
RK 03 Berlin14–6417–607–6024–4126–4450–024–11—28–2139–19
Berliner RC0–7515–2713–788–338–1110–1634–3951–36—40–25
RK Heusenstamm5–8824–6412–7231–3815–4617–3311–1022–3846–43—

Key

Player statistics

Try scorers

The leading try scores in the 2011–12 Rugby-Bundesliga season were :
PlayerClubTries
Caine ElisaraHeidelberger RK31
Rusell Ngamarama KupaTV Pforzheim24
Shaun WalkerHeidelberger RK21
Tim KastenHeidelberger RK21
Jacob KennedyTV Pforzheim17
Rob MayTSV Handschuhsheim15
Manasah SitaSC Neuenheim13
Jesse WesterlundHeidelberger RK13
Alex JessopTV Pforzheim13
Afa TauliTV Pforzheim11
Steffen LiebigHeidelberger RK11
Kieran ManawatuSC 1880 Frankfurt10
Sean ArmstrongHeidelberger RK10

Point scorers

The leading point scores in the 2011–12 Rugby-Bundesliga season were :
PlayerClubPoints
Luke James MuggeridgeHeidelberger RK234
Sam HarrisSC Neuenheim163
Mathias PipaTSV Handschuhsheim162
Caine ElisaraHeidelberger RK157
Jacob KennedyTV Pforzheim132
Fabian HeimpelRG Heidelberg131
Jeremy Te HuiaTV Pforzheim121
Alex JessopTV Pforzheim112
Tim KastenHeidelberger RK105
Shaun WalkerHeidelberger RK105

Per club

The top try and point scorers per club were:
ClubPlayerTriesPlayerPoints
Berliner RC Robert Taylor5 Raphael Hackl55
RK 03 Berlin Christian Lill9 Christian Lill45
SC 1880 Frankfurt Kieran Manawatu10 Kieran Manawatu86
TSV Handschuhsheim Rob May15 Mathias Pipa162
DSV 78 Hannover Nikolai Siekmann6 Steven Bouajila48
RG Heidelberg Bastian Himmer6 Fabian Heimpel131
Heidelberger RK Caine Elisara31 Luke James Muggeridge234
RK Heusenstamm Benjamin Polheim Patrick Weber Tim Biniak5 Pascal Schuster76
SC Neuenheim Manasah Sita13 Sam Harris163
TV Pforzheim Rusell Ngamarama Kupa24 Jacob Kennedy132

Semi-finals and final

Semi-finals

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Final

2nd Bundesliga tables

South/West

The final standings in the table:
ClubPlayedWonDrawnLostPoints forPoints againstDifferenceBonusPointsPoints
1SC 1880 Frankfurt II1612044462142321462
2Heidelberger TV161006436269167848
3RC Luxembourg16100634727671646
4ASV Köln Rugby1610063183171545
5Heidelberger RK II16709389406-17836
6RC Mainz166010289392-103832
7München RFC166010220263-43630
8TSV Handschuhsheim II16709250434-184327
9RC Aachen164012270394-124721

The final standings in the table:
ClubPlayedWonDrawnLostPoints forPoints againstDifferenceBonusPointsPoints
1FC St. Pauli Rugby1413015371903471163
2SC Germania List141004453197256848
3USV Potsdam Rugby1481539030585842
4Hamburger RC1470728726621634
5DRC Hannover14716254346-92434
6TSV Victoria Linden14608256302-46933
7Berliner SV 92 Rugby144010194403-209319
8Welfen Braunschweig140014117479-36255
9RU Hohen Neuendorf000000000