The TSV Handschuhsheim is a German rugby union club from Heidelberg, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. Apart from rugby, the club also offers other sports like association football, handball and tennis.
History The club was formed in 1886 in Handschuhsheim, a suburb of Heidelberg, one of the centres of German rugby.
For most of its existence, it has stood in the shadow of the other, more successful rugby clubs in town, the SC Neuenheim, Heidelberger RK and RG Heidelberg.
TSV had a breakthrough in 1953, when it reached the German championship final for the first time. It played in three more finals in the next four years, winning its sole championship in 1957. Three more final appearances followed in the 1960s.
With the establishment of the Rugby-Bundesliga in 1971, success dropped off for the team and after one more finals appearance in 1978 a long drought followed.
After a 27-year title-wait, TSV took out the German Cup in 2005 but lost the championship final that year. Both games were against DRC Hannover.
In 2008 it won the cup once more, beating German champions RG Heidelberg, 24–23, after extra time in front of 1,000 spectators.TSV Handschuhsheim erkämpft sich den Titel rugbyjournal.de - Article on the German Cup final 2008, accessed: 24 January 2009
In 2008–09, the club sat in fourth place at the winter break with good chances of making it into the expanded finals, where the top-four now qualified but narrowly missed those with a sixth-place finish. Its reserve team played in the 2nd Bundesliga South/West this season. The club also reached the German Cup final once more, losing to champions SC 1880 Frankfurt.
The 2010–11 season saw the club finish third, behind the two professional outfits Heidelberger RK and SC 1880 Frankfurt, prompting it to be referred to as German amateur champions. It also saw the retirement of its most reliable try-scorer Alexander Pipa at the end of the season.TotalRugby Wechselbörse 2011/2012 totalrugby.de, accessed: 21 August 2011 TSV finished fifth in their group in the 2012–13 season and failed to qualify for the championship round, instead entering the second tier DRV-Pokal, where it came first in the south/west division. The club took out the German Cup with a 42–10 victory over Heidelberger TV. The club's reserve team took out the championship in the 3rd Liga South/West.
In 2013–14 the team qualified for the championship and the play-offs in the Rugby-Bundesliga, defeating SC Germania List, 31–22, in the first round and being knocked out by TV Pforzheim in the quarter-finals. In the 2014–15 season the club finished fifth in the south-west championship group and was knocked out by Heidelberger RK in the quarter-finals of the play-offs after a first-round victory over SC Germania List.
The club's rugby department had a membership of 360 in 2007.TSV Handschuhsheim zur gast beim Rugby Club Konstanz Article on the TSV H, accessed: 24 January 2009
Club honours German rugby union championship Champions: 1957 Runners up: 1953, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1963, 1968, 1978, 2005 German rugby union cup Winner: 2005, 2008, 2013 Runners up: 1978, 2009, 2016 German sevens championship Champions: 2004
Recent seasons
Men: First team Recent seasons of the club:RugbyWeb Ergebnisarchiv rugbyweb.de - Results archive, accessed: 24 July 2012 Year Division Position 1997-98 Rugby-Bundesliga (I) 6th 1998-99 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West Bundesliga qualification round 1st 1999-2000 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 1st Bundesliga championship round 6th 2000-01 Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 1st Bundesliga championship round 4th 2001-02 Rugby-Bundesliga 4th 2002-03 Rugby-Bundesliga 5th 2003-04 Rugby-Bundesliga 4th 2004-05 Rugby-Bundesliga 2nd — Runners up 2005-06 Rugby-Bundesliga 4th 2006-07 Rugby-Bundesliga 6th 2007-08 Rugby-Bundesliga 3rd 2008-09 Rugby-Bundesliga 6th 2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga 4th — Semi-finals 2010–11 Rugby-Bundesliga 3rd — Semi-finals 2011–12 Rugby-Bundesliga 5th 2012–13 Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 5th DRV-Pokal – South-West 1st — Winners 2013–14 Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 3rd Rugby-Bundesliga championship round – South-West 6th — Quarter–finals 2014–15 Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 5th Rugby-Bundesliga championship round – South-West 5th — Quarter finals 2015–16 Rugby-Bundesliga South-West 5th Until 2001, when the single-division Bundesliga was established, the season was divided in autumn and spring, a Vorrunde and Endrunde, whereby the top teams of the Rugby-Bundesliga would play out the championship while the bottom teams together with the autumn 2nd Bundesliga champion would play for Bundesliga qualification. The remainder of the 2nd Bundesliga teams would play a spring round to determine the relegated clubs. Where two placing's are shown, the first is autumn, the second spring. In 2012 the Bundesliga was expanded from ten to 24 teams and the 2nd Bundesliga from 20 to 24 with the leagues divided into four regional divisions.
Reserve team Year Division Position 2001-02 Rugby-Regionalliga (III) 1st 2002-03 Rugby-Regionalliga 3rd 2003-04 Rugby-Regionalliga 2nd 2004-05 Rugby-Regionalliga Promoted 2005-06 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West(II) 5th 2006-07 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 5th 2007–08 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 3rd 2008–09 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 5th 2009–10 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 7th 2010–11 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 4th 2011–12 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West 8th — Relegated 2012–13 3rd Liga South/West - West (III) 1st — Champions 2013–14 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – West 1st DRV-Pokal – South-West 5th — First round 2014–15 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga qualification round – South 5th Liga-Pokal – South-West 2nd — Winners 2015–16 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South 4th
Rugby internationals In Germany's 2006–08 European Nations Cup campaign, Thorsten Wiedemann, Sebastien Chaule, Jens Schmidt, Alexander Pipa and Alexander Hug were called up for the national team.
In the 2008–10 campaign, Wiedemann, Chaule, Hug, Pipa and Schmidt all appeared for the TSV and Germany again, while Alexander Metz was a new addition to the club's list of internationals.
In the 2010–12 campaign, Sven Wetzel, Rob May and Felix Bayer were new additions to the club's list of German internationals, while Jens Schmidt and Alexander Hug were re-selected for the side.
The club had three players selected for the German under-18 team at the 2009 European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship, these being Matthias Marin, Sebastian Kößler and Konstantin Hoffmann.U18-EM: Deutschland feiert klaren Auftaktsieg Rugby-Journal - 2009 squad, published: 4 April 2009, accessed: 30 April 2010 Of these, Sebastian Kößler also played at the 2010 tournament.U18 in Bestbesetzung zur EM nach Italien totalrugby.de, published: 23 March 2010, accessed: 30 April 2010
Coaches Recent coaches of the club: Name Period Mathias Bechtel & Günther Sträßer - 2009 Jan Ceselka 2009 - 2012 Alexander Pipa (head coach), Frank Genthner (forwards), Nico Strohmeier (backs)2013-2016Peter Ianusevici (Head Coach)2016-2017Gordon Hanlon (Director of Rugby, Christoph Heising (Backs), Alex Hug (Lineouts and Defense), Julius Nostadt (Scrum and Contact), Mathias Pipa (kicking and counterattack), Peter Ianusevici
(Performance Analyst)2017–Present
References
External links Official website TSV Handschuhsheim team info at totalrugby.de