40 years of Haringey Rhinos

In the early 1960's, the Bird in Hand P.H. in Crouch End became the birthplace of Haringey Rhinos. Players, mainly from London Welsh RFC, including several internationals, clamoured to play Sunday rugby with the "Daffodils XV". They shared a love of rugby, beer and post-match singing and become widely known as the essential social venue of London rugby. Such a recipe naturally brewed into the desire for Saturday rugby and very soon after that we gained RFU and Middlesex CRFU accreditation.

In 1963, the "Hornsey Hornets RFC" set forth on forty years of blood, sweat, mud and smiles. The Club colours (green with scarlet and white circlets) were taken from the old Hornsey Borough coat of arms, matching rather appropriately with the Welsh national flag.

1965 brought local government changes in London, and we responded by adopting our new borough's name and became "Haringey RFC". Our Club emblem of the Rhino is derived from an interpretation of the outline of the map of the borough (sideways on with head in west).

Needless to say, our Club colours will never run, but natural evolution has meant that and we are now commonly known as "Haringey Rhinos" and proudly wear a modern contemporary form of our Rhino emblem.

As we established ourselves as representatives of our London Borough, we started playing at White Hart Lane (later to become New River Sports Centre) in 1976; opening our adjacent Clubhouse in 1990 to set up our home as Fortress Haringey.

Our commitment to play exciting rugby is widely acknowledged by our peers and our success, as we have risen through the leagues to challenge for honours in London 3 North West, reflects our winning formula.

It is with much pride and gratitude that we as Players, Vice-Presidents and Supporters remain faithful to our founders' ethos, and represent our community by continuing to "Put the Players on the Park".