Yorkshire Carnegie

Headingley has a tradition of rugby that started back in 1877, when several youngsters became interested in rugby after watching Leeds St. John's, later to become the Leeds Rhinos rugby league team. Their first game was in November against the Saints second team. Union was centred around a church club. The original rugby union team was Leeds St John's and it played at the Militia Barracks ground before moving to Cardigan Fields. The Headingley name was adopted in 1878 and Cardigan Fields was used for both rugby and cricket. On 5 January 1884, England played Wales there and won 5–3 with a crowd in the region of 2,000 in attendance. The club playing there was then disbanded but was re-formed again in 1885 under the auspices of the Headingley Hill Chapel Sunday Class and played matches on local fields against local teams, including Roundhay.

In 1888, the Cardigan Estate was sold at auction and Lot 17a was purchased by a group of Leeds citizens, who intended to form the city's leading sports club. Lot 17a became what is now Headingley Stadium. Leeds St John's played their final season under that name in 1889–90, before becoming the football section of Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company Ltd the following season. With Headingley still being completed, Leeds' first game was staged at Cardigan Fields, the home side defeating Otley. The first game at Headingley was played on 20 September 1890, when Manningham were beaten by one try and one dropped goal to nil. Leeds were founder members of the Northern Union when it broke away from the Rugby Football Union in 1895. Leeds' début in the Northern Union was a 6–3 victory at Leigh on 7 September 1895, the inaugural day of the new competition.

The development of the playing fields into the Headingley ground was down to Lord Hawke, who was also behind the creation of the Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company and the purchase of lot 17A of the Cardigan Estate. (Lord Hawke captained England and Yorkshire at cricket). However, this saw the demise of the Leeds club which split into two. The part that was to become the Rugby League club in 1895-6 stayed at the Headingley ground and Headingley RUFC was reborn in 1891, eventually finishing up in 1902 in Clarence Fields, Kirkstall. Two other internationals were played in Leeds before the split between Union and League, against Ireland and Scotland, both ending in defeat.

In 1889, Headingley was disbanded when Leeds St. John's moved into the area, built Headingley Rugby Stadium and dropped the St. John's from their name. However, Headingley bounced back and found fixtures outside Yorkshire, in 1901 their fixture list including a game against the famous Blackheath Rugby Club. Roundhay were formed in 1924 and moved to their ground at Chandos Park in the 1930s. Forty internationals have played for one team or the other perhaps the best known being Peter Winterbottom, Ian McGeechan and Chris Rea, who played for Headingley. Former Scotland coach Frank Hadden also had a spell at Headingley, where his and McGeechan's playing paths crossed, at the tail end of his career. Brian Moore played for Roundhay before his move to Nottingham and selection for England.

• Langholm Sevens
  • Champions (2): 1968, 1971

Headingley was the first English team to win the Langholm Sevens.

Leeds RUFC was founded in 1991 after the merger of Roundhay and Headingley; Morley RFC was also invited to join but declined. The new club played their first match on 1 September 1992 against Hull Ionians. The first try was scored by Glynn Thompson, previously of Roundhay. Richard Cardus, Bev Dovey, Denis Wilkins and Keith Smith all won international caps while in the Roundhay ranks. Smith featured in England's first full tour of Australia in 1975, but had to return home injured and Wilkins, who was also in the Royal Navy, won 13 caps, between 1951–53. When they amalgamated in 1991–92, both clubs were in National Division Three.

In the first season in National Three, Leeds finished 6th, but League reorganisation put the club in National Division Four, with finishes of 6th, 6th and 5th in 1995–96. The following season, they finished 3rd, scoring 1,209 points in thirty games, with the former England 'A' outside-half Gerry Ainscough scoring 307 points, and the ex-Scotland 'A' utility back Mark Appleson scoring sixteen tries. In 1997–98, they were promoted from the newly formed Jewson One to Premiership Two, finishing runners-up to Worcester. The Tongan Sateki Tuipulotu scored a then club record 322 points.

In 1998, the club amalgamated with Leeds Rhinos to form Leeds Rugby Limited. Leeds RUFC took on a new name when they entered the 1998 Premiership Two competition, Leeds Tykes.

The Tykes finished 6th in their first season in Premiership Two with the Tongan scoring 250 points and Simon Middleton and Jonathan Scales scoring ten tries apiece. Since 1996, the Tykes have played at Leeds Rhinos' Headingley stadium and Phil Davies became their player-coach. In their first season, they finished 8th in a twelve team fourth division. They were promoted to the Premiership in 2001. In gaining promotion Richard Le Bas scored 337 points and Graham Mackay, a product of Leeds Rhinos, scored 19 tries, both club season records still extant.

In 2001, Tom Palmer became the first Leeds Tykes player to be capped for England when he appeared as a replacement against the United States. The Leeds Tykes team for their first game in the Premiership on 2 September 2001 against Bath was Shelley, Holt, Wring, C. Murphy, Palmer, Mather, Ponton, Fea'unati, Benton, Bachop, Emmerson, Woof, Mayer, Scarbrough, Benson. The replacements were Hogg for Mather (74), Davies for Fea'unati (75), Kerr for Fea'unati (26), O'Reilly for Mayer (73), Fea'unati for Kerr (33). Not used were Luffman, Clarke, Le Bas.

The Tykes survived their first season after finishing bottom of the league when the National League 1 champions were denied entry into the Premiership in 2002 (Champions Rotherham Titans were refused promotion to the Zurich Premiership for the 2002–03 season due to facilities failing to meet Premiership criteria). The next season Leeds finished fifth in the table and made their Heineken Cup début in December 2003. In their four seasons in the Zurich Premiership, they finished an average ninth and reached two domestic cup semi-finals.

In 2005, they were mid-table by early November, but at the turn of the year, following injuries to key players, they were bottom of the Zurich Premiership and some way adrift of their rivals. Despite the threat of relegation, they made it to their first Powergen Cup final. They faced Bath who were top of the table and had never been beaten in a cup final, winning 20–12 to claim their first trophy.

Following the cup win, they won five straight games and avoided the drop by finishing eighth. Phil Davies relinquished control of some coaching duties to concentrate on his role as Director of Rugby in 2005 following another poor start to the season which saw the Tykes lose their first eight games in three different competitions.

After losing three successive away matches in injury time to Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers, in January 2006 former Rugby League international Daryl Powell was promoted from the back room staff to First Team coach. Leeds were finally relegated after Newcastle Falcons beat Sale Sharks. Following relegation, Marshall was transfer listed by request and Mike Shelley announced his retirement. Other players who left were: Iain Balshaw, Chris Bell, Gordon Bulloch, Danny Care, Andy Craig, David Doherty, Dan Hyde, Mark McMillan, Tom Palmer, Richard Parks, Roland Reid, Gordon Ross, David Rees, Roland De Marigny, Scott Morgan, Chris Murphy and Nathan Thomas. Players who remained at club were: Tom Biggs, Lee Blackett, Michael Cusack, Jon Dunbar, Stuart Hooper, James Isaacson, Chris Jones, Rob Rawlinson and Rob Vickerman. At the end of April 2006, Phil Davies resigned as Director of Rugby to be replaced by academy coach Stuart Lancaster.

The new players signed for the new season under Lancaster were Leigh Hinton from Newport Gwent Dragons, Leinster centre Jonny Hepworth, wing/full-back Richard Welding from Cornish Pirates, scrum-half Jacob Rauluni ex-Earth Titans and Bristol, scrum-half Darren Edwards from London Irish, winger John Holtby from Earth Titans, and centre Anitelia Tuilagi, on loan from Leicester Tigers. New forwards include flanker Mark Lock from London Wasps, Argentinian 7s and ex-Plymouth Albion flanker Martín Schusterman, Former Bristol Rugby No 8 Rhys Oakley from Newport Gwent Dragons, hooker James Parkes from Gloucester and props USA international Mike MacDonald, ex-Worcester who helped the Eagles to qualify for the World Cup, and Colin Noon from Biarritz.

In 2007, the club was renamed as Leeds Carnegie in a deal with Leeds Metropolitan University, which took a 51% stake. Carnegie College is part of the university's sport department. Leeds director of rugby Stuart Lancaster said: "I am delighted by the announcement. This is another hugely significant step in our evolution."

In 2008, Lancaster left Leeds to take a job at the RFU, replaced by England World Cup winner Neil Back, and Andy Key, both of whom were previously on the coaching staff at Leicester Tigers.

In May 2009, Leeds Carnegie announced that it had restructured for the Premiership.[6] Leeds Met University returned its 51% stake in Leeds Carnegie and Leeds Rugby retook full control.[7] The restructuring saw former Wales and British and Irish Lions international Gareth Davies join a new board of directors representing the university.

Leeds Carnegie 2011-12

In 2014, the club was rebranded as Yorkshire Carnegie.[8][9] They also struck a two-year sponsorship deal with Satsuma Loans at a reported £300,000 per year.[10] In 2019 they announced that the club had lost key investors and that they were looking for new investments. On 9 April 2019 the players and staff were told that as of the start of the 2019/20 season the club would be returning to part-time status.[11]

• Director of Rugby: Phil Davies
• Conditioners: Dave Wilson and Ian Kirke
• Head Physio: Andy Barker
• Assistant first team Physio:
• Doctor: Vasudevan Mani
• Head of Analysis: Callum Wood
• Academy Manager: Ben Lazenby
• Equipment Manager: Mark Weavill

Season	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	BP	Pts	Pos	Notes
2019–20 RFU Championship	13	0	0	13	166	647	-481	1	2.75	12th	relegated season ended prematurely due to COVID-19 pandemic
2018–19 RFU Championship	22	11	0	11	475	549	-74	11	55	6th
2017–18 RFU Championship	22	12	2	8	518	547	-29	11	63	6th
2016–17 RFU Championship	20	15	0	5	619	461	158	14	74	2nd	finalist
2015–16 RFU Championship	22	14	0	8	655	466	189	22	78	3rd	Semi-finalist
2014–15 RFU Championship	22	10	1	11	494	462	32	0	54	6th
2013–14 RFU Championship	23	18	0	5	700	387	313	0	84	3rd
2012–13 RFU Championship	22	13	0	9	585	480	105	0	67	4th
2011–12 RFU Championship	22	13	1	8	470	505	−35	0	60	6th
2010–11 Aviva Premiership	22	4	0	18	315	590	-275	7	23	12th	Relegated
2009–10 Guinness Premiership	22	7	1	14	283	493	−210	6	36	10th
2008–09 National Division One	30	28	0	2	1238	376	863	21	133	1st	Promoted
2007–08 Guinness Premiership	22	2	1	19	336	732	−396	2	12	12th	Relegated
2006–07 National Division One	30	24	2	4	960	474	486	23	123	1st	Promoted
2005–06 Guinness Premiership	22	5	0	17	363	573	−210	8	28	12th	Relegated
2004–05 Zurich Premiership	22	9	0	13	380	431	−51	7	43	8th
2003–04 Zurich Premiership	22	7	1	14	449	588	−139	7	37	11th
2002–03 Zurich Premiership	22	12	2	8	478	435	43	6	58	5th
2001–02 Zurich Premiership	22	6	0	16	406	654	−248	4	28	12th
2000–01 National Division One	26	24	0	2	1,032	407	625	1	116	1st	Promoted
1999–2000 National Division One	26	22	0	4	792	269	523	1	44	2nd
1998–1999 National Division One	26	16	0	10	713	367	346	1	32	5th

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Notes
Powergen Cup	11	5	1	5	297	274	Winners 2005
Heineken Cup	12	5	0	7	209	213
European Challenge Cup	31	18	2	11	832	601	Quarter-Finalists 2007/8
European Shield	6	4	1	1	324	106	Semi-Finalists 2004/5