Henley Hawks

English rugby union club, based in Oxfordshire From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henley Hawks is a rugby union club based in Henley-on-Thames and is one of the leading rugby clubs in the Thames Valley. The first team play in the fourth tier of the English league system; National League 2 East.

Full nameHenley Rugby Club
FoundedAugust 1930; 95 years ago (1930-08)
GroundDry Leas (Capacity: 4,000)
Quick facts Full name, Founded ...
Henley Hawks
Full nameHenley Rugby Club
FoundedAugust 1930; 95 years ago (1930-08)
LocationHenley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England
GroundDry Leas (Capacity: 4,000)
LeagueNational League 2 East
2024–258th
Team kit
Official website
henleyrugbyclub.co.uk
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History

Henley RFC was founded in August 1930 as Old Henleiensians (old boys of Henley Grammar School). After a break during the war years the club was re-founded in 1954 and changed its name to Henley RFC in 1963. It has been based at Dry Leas since then.

Recent playing record

Henley's fortunes stood still until Clive Woodward, England's future World Cup winning manager, became the 1st XV coach in 1990. His introduction of the "flat ball" philosophy was a pioneering event for British rugby and brought promotion in 1992. Henley gained a further promotion in 1994 to the National Leagues and, after Woodward departed to coach London Irish, Henley continued to play fluid rugby and two further promotions ensued (in the 1997–98 and 1998–99 seasons), landing the club in what is now National Division One. Also in 1999, Henley enjoyed a record run in the Tetley's Bitter Cup, defeating the Premier 1 club Bedford in the fourth round before bowing out to Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Henley finished ninth in National One in 1999–00, seventh in 2000–01 but finished 13th in 2001–02 and were relegated to National Division Two. They regained their place in National One by finishing second in 2002–03 but two years later were relegated back into National Two. After flirting with promotion from National Division Two in season 2006–7, finishing third by one point to Launceston, the following season was little short of disastrous resulting in relegation to National Division 3 (South). Last season, 2009–10 they struggled during the middle part of the season to face further relegation worries but a good finish to the year resulted in a mid-table finish. This season has seen a large improvement on the previous season's performances especially during the middle of the year and the squad are hopeful of a top 6 finish. On 4 May 2013, Henley Hawks beat Worthing 55–27 to secure a place in National Division One for the 2013–14 season.

The Hawks squad is now coached by Rob Cain.

Current standings

More information Pos, Pld ...
2025–26 National League 2 East table
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD TB LB Pts Qualification
1 Bury St Edmunds (C) 26 20 1 5 1128 659 +469 22 4 108 Promotion place
2 Oundle (PP) 26 20 2 4 940 713 +227 21 1 106 Promotion Play-off
3 Old Albanian 26 18 0 8 1009 813 +196 22 3 97
4 Barnes 26 16 1 9 738 598 +140 15 5 86
5 Canterbury 25 15 0 10 757 644 +113 15 6 81
6 Dorking 26 14 2 10 798 598 +200 13 6 79
7 Westcombe Park 26 12 0 14 851 751 +100 19 8 75
8 Havant 26 11 1 14 840 960 120 19 1 66
9 London Welsh 26 10 0 16 705 866 161 16 8 64
10 Guernsey Raiders 26 11 1 14 690 875 185 13 3 62
11 Esher 26 10 0 16 844 831 +13 16 6 62
12 Henley Hawks (RP) 26 9 2 15 693 665 +28 12 9 61 Relegation Play-off
13 Sevenoaks (R) 26 8 0 18 743 900 157 12 5 49 Relegation place
14 Oxford Harlequins (R) 25 2 0 23 505 1368 863 11 2 21
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Updated to match(es) played on 25 April 2026. Source: National League Rugby [1]
Rules for classification: If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Number of matches won
  2. Number of matches drawn
  3. Difference between points for and against
  4. Total number of points for
  5. Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
  6. Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled

Ground

The ground is leased from the Town Council with the unexpired portion being nearly fifty years. When the leagues were started in 1987 Henley were placed in South West II. Henley have developed a working relationship with London Wasps, who for many seasons from 2005 used Dry Leas for their A-team matches, and also loaned squad players to Henley for development. Wasps moved their A league matches to Maidenhead Rugbys all weather pitch and since their move to Coventry in 2015 have used Henley again on a couple of occasions.

Honours

1st team:

2nd team:

3rd team:

4th team:

Notable players

See also

References

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