# 2008–09 Rugby-Bundesliga

The Rugby-Bundesliga 2008-09 was the 38th edition of this competition and the 89th edition of the German rugby union championship. Nine teams play a home-and-away season with a finals round between the top four teams at the end. The bottom two teams determine which club is relegated in an end-of-season decider. The season started on 30 August 2008 and finished with the championship final on 23 May 2009, interrupted by a winter break from early December to late February.
The competition was won by the SC Frankfurt 1880 the previous season.

## Overview

The 2008-09 modus was somewhat different from the previous season. The competition had been expanded from eight to nine teams. The final, which used to be determined by the top-two teams of the regular season was now played by the two winners of the semi-finals which pair the first placed team against the fourth and the second against the third.
At the bottom end of the table, a relegation match between the two last-placed teams was also a new introduction. All up, the number of season games in the Rugby-Bundesliga increased to 76 from 57.
This change of modus was decided upon on 19 July 2008 at the annual general meeting of the German rugby association, the DRV. It was decided to expand the league to ten teams for 2009-10, meaning only one club was to be relegated in 2009, and two promoted. It was also then decided to introduce the extended play-off format.
The defending champion was SC 1880 Frankfurt, who beat RG Heidelberg in the 2007-08 final, while the RK 03 Berlin was newly promoted to the league.
With Kerstin Ljungdahl and Dana Teagarden, two female head referees have been officiating in the Rugby-Bundesliga in 2008-09.

## Bundesliga table

| | Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Points |
| 1 | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 16 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 693 | 227 | 466 | 70 |
| 2 | Heidelberger RK | 16 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 464 | 212 | 252 | 56 |
| 3 | SC Neuenheim | 16 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 423 | 287 | 136 | 49 |
| 4 | Berliner Rugby Club | 16 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 441 | 328 | 113 | 48 |
| 5 | RG Heidelberg | 16 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 323 | 281 | 42 | 46 |
| 6 | TSV Handschuhsheim | 16 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 521 | 377 | 144 | 46 |
| 7 | RK Heusenstamm | 16 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 336 | 515 | -179 | 29 |
| 8 | RK 03 Berlin | 16 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 195 | 688 | -493 | 11 |
| 9 | DRC Hannover | 16 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 176 | 657 | -481 | 0 |
* Relegated: DRC Hannover
* Promoted: ASV Köln Rugby and DSV 78 Hannover

## Player statistics
### Try scorers

The leading try scores in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2008–09 season were (10 tries or more):
| Player | Club | Tries |
| Alexander Pipa | TSV Handschuhsheim | 22 |
| Bevan Grey | RK Heusenstamm | 13 |
| Jason Campell | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 10 |
| Marcus Seuseu | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 10 |
| Jovesa Naivalu | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 10 |

### Point scorers

The leading point scores in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2008–09 season were (100 points or more):
| Player | Club | Points |
| Thorsten Wiedemann | TSV Handschuhsheim | 212 |
| Braam Pretorius | Heidelberger RK | 211 |
| Lars Eckert | SC Neuenheim | 137 |
| Fabian Heimpel | RG Heidelberg | 129 |
| Alexander Pipa | TSV Handschuhsheim | 110 |

### Per club

The top try and point scorers per club were:
| Club | Player | Tries | Player | Points |
| Berliner RC | Gerrit van Look | 8 | Sebastian Freund | 74 |
| RK 03 Berlin | Robin Knüpfer | 7 | Robin Knüpfer | 35 |
| SC 1880 Frankfurt | Jason Campell Marcus Seuseu Jovesa Naivalu | 10 | Rusell Kupa | 80 |
| TSV Handschuhsheim | Alexander Pipa | 22 | Thorsten Wiedemann | 212 |
| DRC Hannover | Sven Pausch | 4 | Dan Richards | 33 |
| RG Heidelberg | Mustafa Güngör | 7 | Fabian Heimpel | 129 |
| Heidelberger RK | Pieter Johannes Jordaan | 9 | Braam Pretorius | 211 |
| RK Heusenstamm | Bevan Grey | 13 | Mark Sztyndera | 82 |
| SC Neuenheim | Juan Cabanas | 9 | Lars Eckert | 137 |

## Bundesliga results

| Club | SCF | HRK | SCN | BRC | RGH | TSV | RKH | RKB | DRC |
| SC 1880 Frankfurt | — | 27-22 | 24-14 | 67-7 | 54-13 | 81-19 | 30-9 | 69-0 | 50-0 |
| Heidelberger RK | 13-23 | — | 38-3 | 12-10 | 23-17 | 38-8 | 33-5 | 56-0 | 78-7 |
| SC Neuenheim | 16-46 | 31-23 | — | 13-8 | 23-28 | 18-6 | 37-15 | 69-14 | 49-7 |
| Berliner RC | 20-12 | 15-35 | 31-16 | — | 29-13 | 22-19 | 88-15 | 59-0 | 30-15 |
| RG Heidelberg | 15-29 | 3-5 | 19-15 | 20-6 | — | 12-6 | 38-19 | 17-5 | 35-10 |
| TSV Handschuhsheim | 36-31 | 25-12 | 16-20 | 53-21 | 9-16 | — | 28-25 | 78-7 | 64-12 |
| RK Heusenstamm | 29-53 | 10-36 | 7-27 | 19-24 | 28-23 | 22-29 | — | 37-20 | 41-12 |
| RK 03 Berlin | 7-44 | 17-25 | 5-27 | 14-42 | 14-36 | 12-73 | 17-20 | — | 34-23 |
| DRC Hannover | 7-53 | 11-15 | 0-45 | 5-29 | 6-18 | 28-52 | 20-35 | 13-29 | — |

### Key

| Home win | Draw | Away win | Game not played (awarded) |

## Promotion/relegation play-off
### Relegation match

* 2009-05-21 15:00
| RK 03 Berlin | – | DRC Hannover |
* The DRC Hannover canceled the game on 18 April 2009 and voluntarily accepted relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga North/East.

## Semi-finals and final
### Semi-finals

* 2009-05-16 15:00
| SC 1880 Frankfurt | 36 – 15 | Berliner Rugby Club |
| | Report | |
* Sportanlage an der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main Referee: Dana Teagarden
* 2009-05-16 15:00
| Heidelberger RK | 19 – 14 (aet) | SC Neuenheim |
| Try: Pretorius 98' Con: Pretorius 98' Pen: Pretorius (3) 7', 39', 56' Drop: Jordaan 103' | Report | Try: Smit 98' Pen: Eckert (3) 16', 40', 60' |
* Heidelberg Attendance: 1,200 Referee: Frank Himmer

### Final

* 2009-05-23 14:00
| SC 1880 Frankfurt | 11 – 8 | Heidelberger RK |
| Try: Kupa 36' Pen: Kupa (2) 10', 73' | Report | Try: Schliwa 20' Pen: Pretorius 52' |
* Sportanlage an der Feldgerichtstrasse, Frankfurt am Main Attendance: 3,200 Referee: Jens Reinecke
SC 1880 FRANKFURT: :
| FB | 15 | Ralph Klinghammer 46' |
| RW | 14 | Jamie Houston |
| OC | 13 | Kuramate Tama Tuirirangi 79' |
| IC | 12 | Daniel Preussner 61' |
| LW | 11 | Rolf Wacha |
| FH | 10 | Corey Read |
| SH | 9 | Aaron Satchwell |
| N8 | 8 | Ross Warrick |
| OF | 7 | Api Matenga 76' |
| BF | 6 | Jason Campell |
| RL | 5 | Kieran Manawatu |
| LL | 4 | Philip Aporo 55' |
| TP | 3 | Anton Ewald |
| HK | 2 | Bratley Langenhoven 61' |
| LP | 1 | Russel Kupa |
| Substitutes: |||
| HK | 16 | Marcus Seuseu 61' 71' |
| LL | 17 | Jovesa Naivalu 55' |
| OF | 18 | Dennis Feidelberg 76' |
| IC | 19 | Jannis Läpple 61' 79' |
| IC | 20 | Karsten Dobs 79' |
| OC | 21 | Chris Howells 79' |
| FB | 22 | Syd Douglas 46' |
| Coach: |||
| Phil Stevenson ||||
HEIDELBERGER RK: :
| FB | 15 | Frederik Potgieter |
| RW | 14 | Alexander Biskupek |
| OC | 13 | Patrick Schliwa 65' |
| IC | 12 | Dan Armitage |
| LW | 11 | Julio David Rodriguez |
| FH | 10 | Manuel Ballerin 77' |
| SH | 9 | Andreas Kerber 75' |
| N8 | 8 | Johannes Erasmus |
| OF | 7 | Sean Armstrong |
| BF | 6 | Pieter Johannes Jordaan |
| RL | 5 | Christopher Liebig 40' |
| LL | 4 | Sydney Brenner |
| TP | 3 | Christoffer Neureuther |
| HK | 2 | Steffen Liebig |
| LP | 1 | Braam Pretorius |
| Substitutes: |||
| RL | 16 | Jürgen Missal 40' |
| SH | 17 | Sascha Fraser 75' |
| FH | 18 | Jörg Bielinski 77' |
| OC | 19 | Arthur Zeiler 65' |
| | 20 | |
| | 21 | |
| | 22 | |
| Coach: |||
| Murray Archibald ||||

## 2nd Bundesliga tables
### South/West

| | Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Points |
| 1 | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | 18 | 16 | 0 | 2 | 778 | 217 | 561 | 77 |
| 2 | ASV Köln Rugby | 18 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 515 | 166 | 349 | 72 |
| 3 | RG Heidelberg II | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 445 | 357 | 88 | 57 |
| 4 | München RFC | 18 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 451 | 350 | 91 | 48 |
| 5 | TSV Handschuhsheim II | 18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 334 | 442 | -108 | 37 |
| 6 | StuSta München | 18 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 270 | 393 | -123 | 37 |
| 7 | RC Mainz ‡ | 18 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 343 | 513 | -170 | 33 |
| 8 | Heidelberger RK II ‡ | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 265 | 472 | -207 | 31 |
| 9 | Stuttgarter RC | 18 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 256 | 380 | -124 | 30 |
| 10 | SG Heidelberger TV/SC Neuenheim II | 18 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 259 | 616 | -357 | 24 |
* Promoted to Bundesliga: ASV Köln Rugby (SC 1880 Frankfurt II inelegible)
* Relegated from Bundesliga: none
* Relegated from 2nd Bundesliga: SG Heidelberger TV/SC Neuenheim II
* Promoted to 2nd Bundesliga: RC Luxembourg, Karlsruher SV Rugby
* ‡ Two points deducted for break of licensing agreement; insufficient numbers of youth teams.

### North/East

| | Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Points |
| 1 | DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1138 | 135 | 1003 | 87 |
| 2 | TSV Victoria Linden | 18 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 720 | 246 | 474 | 72 |
| 3 | USV Potsdam | 18 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 804 | 271 | 533 | 69 |
| 4 | FC St Pauli Rugby | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 632 | 311 | 321 | 56 |
| 5 | SG SV Odin/VfR Döhren | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 509 | 328 | 181 | 52 |
| 6 | RU Hohen Neuendorf | 18 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 452 | 401 | 51 | 45 |
| 7 | SC Germania List | 18 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 250 | 813 | -563 | 20 |
| 8 | Hamburger RC | 18 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 235 | 891 | -656 | 19 |
| 9 | Berliner SV 92 Rugby | 18 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 201 | 857 | -656 | 15 |
| 10 | SG Schwalbe/DRC Hannover II ‡ | 18 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 114 | 802 | -688 | -7 |
* Promoted to Bundesliga: DSV 78/08 Ricklingen
* Relegated from Bundesliga: DRC Hannover
* Relegated from 2nd Bundesliga: SG Schwalbe/DRC Hannover II, Berliner SV 92 Rugby
* Promoted to 2nd Bundesliga: Berliner RC II, FT Adler Kiel Rugby
* ‡ Team withdrawn from the competition on 22 April 2009 due to a lack of players.

## 2nd Bundesliga final

* 2009-05-23 12:00
| DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | 10 – 24 | SC 1880 Frankfurt II |
* Referee: Scharmann

## DRV-Pokal 2008-09

In 2008-09, 16 teams took part in the national cup competition, those being the eight clubs who played in the Bundesliga in 2007-08 plus the top-four of each of the two 2nd Bundesligas that season.
| Round of 16 | Round of 16 | Round of 16 | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Finals | Finals | Finals |
| SC 1880 Frankfurt | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 51 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Heidelberger RK | Heidelberger RK | 20 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Heidelberger RK | Heidelberger RK | 20 | Berliner Rugby Club | Berliner Rugby Club | 7 | | | | | | | |
| | | | SC 1880 Frankfurt | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 17 | | | | | | | |
| TSV Handschuhsheim II | TSV Handschuhsheim II | 8 | SC 1880 Frankfurt | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 17 | | | | | | | |
| Berliner Rugby Club | Berliner Rugby Club | 36 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Berliner Rugby Club | Berliner Rugby Club | 36 | | | | SC 1880 Frankfurt | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 50 | | | | |
| | | | | | | DRC Hannover $^2$ | DRC Hannover $^2$ | 0 | | | | |
| FC St. Pauli | FC St. Pauli | 0 | | | | | | | DRC Hannover $^2$ | DRC Hannover $^2$ | 0 | | | | |
| DRC Hannover $^1$ | DRC Hannover $^1$ | 50 | | | | | | | | | | |
| DRC Hannover $^1$ | DRC Hannover $^1$ | 50 | DRC Hannover | DRC Hannover | 15 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Stuttgarter RC | Stuttgarter RC | 0 | | | | | | | |
| Stuttgarter RC | Stuttgarter RC | 17 | Stuttgarter RC | Stuttgarter RC | 0 | | | | | | | |
| TSV Victoria Linden | TSV Victoria Linden | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
| TSV Victoria Linden | TSV Victoria Linden | 10 | | | | | | | | SC 1880 Frankfurt | SC 1880 Frankfurt | 56 |
| | | | | | | | | | | TSV Handschuhsheim | TSV Handschuhsheim | 24 |
| RG Heidelberg | RG Heidelberg | 45 | | | | | | | | | | | TSV Handschuhsheim | TSV Handschuhsheim | 24 |
| RK 03 Berlin | RK 03 Berlin | 3 | | | | | | | | | | |
| RK 03 Berlin | RK 03 Berlin | 3 | TSV Handschuhsheim | TSV Handschuhsheim | 15 | | | | | | | |
| | | | RG Heidelberg | RG Heidelberg | 13 | | | | | | | |
| TSV Handschuhsheim | TSV Handschuhsheim | 39 | RG Heidelberg | RG Heidelberg | 13 | | | | | | | |
| RK Heusenstamm | RK Heusenstamm | 19 | | | | | | | | | | |
| RK Heusenstamm | RK Heusenstamm | 19 | | | | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | 17 | | | | |
| | | | | | | TSV Handschuhsheim | TSV Handschuhsheim | 34 | | | | |
| ASV Köln Rugby | ASV Köln Rugby | 7 | | | | | | | TSV Handschuhsheim | TSV Handschuhsheim | 34 | | | | |
| SC 1880 Frankfurt II | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | 24 | | | | | | | | | | |
| SC 1880 Frankfurt II | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | 24 | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | SC 1880 Frankfurt II | 18 | | | | | | | |
| | | | DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | 16 | | | | | | | |
| DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | 10 | DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | DSV 78/08 Ricklingen | 16 | | | | | | | |
| SC Neuenheim | SC Neuenheim | 6 | | | | | | | | | | |
Source:"DRV-Pokal 2008-09". Rugby-web.de. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
* $^1$ Game not played, awarded to DRC Hannover.
* $^2$ Game awarded to Frankfurt after Hannover cancelled the game, stating that they were unable to compete at the scheduled date and no other date being available.