When was london wasps founded

Neville Compton formed part of the team joining Wasps in , captaining the side from to , and becoming the first player to represent the Club at Barbarian level.

Compton worked for Wasps for a considerable amount of years until he finally retired in During the Second World War, Wasps was graced with a mixture of great talents with many great players coming to Sudbury for Military Service. Wasps celebrated their Centenary year in playing on the fields of Rugby School where the founder of rugby, Willliam Webb Ellis, originally played in , competing in matches against the Barbarians and Harlequins.

During the s, the club struggled on the field, but by the arrival of two world-class players, Mark Taylor and Roger Uttley, saw the fortunes of the Club change dramatically. The s brought with it a flood of international honours with nine Wasps players representing England between and England representation hit its all-time peak when in , Rob Andrew captained the full international side against Romania with David Pegler captaining the England B side and Steve Pilgrim captain of the under 21 team - all the teams won.

The s saw many visits to Twickenham where Wasps were finalists of the John Player Cup in and against Bath in two very exciting matches that were unfortunately lost. The start of the professional era saw Wasps come together as one of the most powerful playing squads in the country.

In Wasps went on to win the Tetley's Bitter Cup, before winning it again in beating Northampton at Twickenham in front of thousands of delighted fans. They were European Champions twice, in and ; have won six English Championships including three in a row from —05; and won three Anglo-Welsh Cups.

They have also won the European Rugby Challenge Cup. Wasps most recent trophy is the Premiership. The —18 season marked the th anniversary of Wasps Rugby Football Club.

In the —21 season Wasps finished 8th, this entitled them to compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The current head coach is Lee Blackett who was appointed in February Wasps en. Wasp Rob Andrew captained England against Romania in In , Andrew captained Wasps to their first Courage League title, as they narrowly pipped Orrell to be English champions. After winning the title, Wasps regularly finished in the top three of the Courage league title, although they were never quite good enough to overcome Bath, the pre-eminent club of the time.

Then in , with many pundits predicting Wasps could make a run for the title, Rob Andrew took up a lucrative deal to become Player Manager of Newcastle Falcons. For a few weeks Wasps looked like becoming the first casualty of the professional era as the backbone of their team had left. But under newly appointed Captain Lawrence Dallaglio, the club steadied the ship, and managed to finish fourth, and secure a place in the following season's Heineken Cup, which English teams were entering for the first time.

The following season, , Wasps won their second league championship, and became the first English Champions of the professional era. It was an equally momentous season off the field. At the same they adopted a new logo, which was selected as being in keeping with the club's history. He has largely been credited with creating Wasps' famous Blitz Defence that stops teams and is the basis for Wasps' own scoring chances.

The success of Wasps at their new ground meant they didn't return to Loftus Road after Fulham left. Though Bath beat them in numerous finals in the s, the Wasps emerged as champions, beating Bath 48 to 30 at Madejski Stadium. Wasps end of season run to glory also included timely wins that saw them defeat the Northampton Saints, in the Premiership semi final, after finishing 2nd in the league table.

This saw them face Gloucester in the final at Twickenham. Wasps superior fitness saw them waltz past the cherry and whites and win their first English title since , by 39 points to 3. Wasps finished top of their pool in the Heineken Cup , where they went on to soundly defeat Gloucester at the quarter-finals and won a final berth after overcoming Munster 37 points to 32 in the semi-finals.

The semi-final, held at Lansdowne Road , has gone down as one of the all-time classic matches, for its incredible intensity, beating that of most international games. They met Toulouse in the final at Twickenham , where they became champions, defeating the French side, 27 points to 20, and in winning their first Heineken Cup produced another classic match. Wasps followed up the win the following week, again at Twickenham, by beating Bath to retain the title of England's champion side, and complete a double.

In December the RFU revealed that the team was to be disqualified from the Powergen Cup for fielding an ineligible player, hooker Jonny Barrett, in a sixth-round game versus Bristol. Edwards, however, was not a totally happy man as Wasps conceded their first try of the three Premiership finals in the dying minutes. Warren Gatland signed off at Wasps with a rare smile to continue his coaching with Waikato in New Zealand.