London Rugby League

At senior level, the South London Storm fields a “First Grade” side in the Rugby League Conference Premier Division. 

The Rugby League Conference (RLC) (ealiso known as the Co-operative Rugby Leeague Conference as a result of sponsorship from the Co-opierative Group), is a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England, Scotland and Wales. There will be 12 divisions in 2009 (1 National, 5 Premier (North East, North West, Midlands, South and Wales)) and 6 Regional (Scotland, North East, North Midlands, East, South West and London & South East).

We field one other senior team, competing in the development London League. This is our development side which aims to link our junior and open ages together. We also field a u18's Academy side.

South London Storm, originally named the “Saints” was formed in the summer of 1997. They were accepted into the fledgling London League, and in their debut season they finished a creditable third in the Second Division behind Kingston and St Albans.

The name of the club was changed to South London Storm and they were accepted to rapidly expanding Rugby League Conference (RLC) for the 2000 summer season.  

It was a real baptism of fire for Storm in the RLC, only managing a couple of wins during the 2000 and 2001 seasons, as the club set about raising the profile of the sport in this corner of the capital.

2002 will be remembered as the season where South London met Bedford Swifts in the RLC Shield Final, where they treated the large crowd and the Sky TV cameras to an exhilarating display of running rugby. Storm ran in ten tries in a runaway 54-2 victory. To cap the season the club was awarded the prestigious RLC Club of the Year award. 

South London were admitted to the newly formed National League Three division in April 2003 on the back of the previous season’s success, narrowly missing out on the Play-offs in both 2003 and 2004 seasons.  With increasing player numbers, the club entered a second team in the RLC, and employed the first full-time Rugby League Development Officer in the area, accelerating the junior development program started by volunteers in 2000.  Under the South London Storm “umbrella” are the three junior feeder clubs formed – the Croydon Hurricanes, Thornton Heath Tornadoes, and the Brixton Bulls.

South London Storm were in 2004 awarded the Active Sports Club of the Year award from 400 participating sports clubs signed up to the Active Sports program, the biggest sports development program in London.  The club also embarked on a historic tour to Australia – the first British Rugby League team to tour Australia since 1997.

In 2005, the club fielded 6 players in its senior sides who had progressed from the junior program. From the club’s development program, two players were drafted to semi-professional National League 2 clubs, one to Super League club Hull, three to the London Broncos Academy (U/18’s) and six to the Broncos Foundation Academy (U/16’s). The club’s senior playing membership includes two current West Indies RL internationals and a South African RL International, all of whom first represented their countries from South London.

Storm were admitted to the newly created RLC Premier League for the 2005 season and appointed the promising young coach, Rob Powell as Director of Coaching . The season proved to be an extraordinary success with the club winning its first round Challenge Cup match and the first team winning all but one game during the season, laying the platform for the RLC Premier Grand Final victory.

The team lost in the national semi-final against Bridgend, the competition’s eventual winners, but the season ended on a high by beating the other 85 clubs to the RLC club of the year award for 2nd time in 4 years.

On-field in 2006, the First Team defended their TotalRL Rugby League Conference South Premiership with a win over Ipswich, before triumphing in the National RLC Premier Grand Final over East Lancashire Lions – the first National title held by a London rugby league team.  The Second Grade held off Luton to win the London Amateur Rugby League title.
 
These achievements were further recognised by being awarded BBC London’s Non-Professional Team of the Year at BBC London Sports Awards and the Totalrl.com RLC Team of the Year. Also Alan Emerson and Rob Powell were nominated as Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively.

2007 saw the first team lose out to St Albans in the RLCP South final after a tough three way fight with St Albans and London Skolars 'A'.

2008 saw a new coach in Marcus Tobin and Captain Luke Bonnor. After a slow start the side rallied well to finish the regular season in second place. A semi final win over ipswich saw Storm face West London in the RLCP South Final. An epic battle finally saw Wests triumph 24-20.

2009 saw James Massara take over the role as head coach. Storm went through the regular season with a 100% record but after seeing off ipswich in the semi final again fell to Wests this time by 26-16.

Storm Academy won the London u18's competition in their first year.

• Harry Jepson Trophy (RLC National Champions): Winners 2006
• RLC Club Of The Year: 2002, 2005, 2006
• RLC Shield: Winners 2002
• Active Sports Club Of The Year Award: 2004
• BBC London Amateur Sports Club of the Year: 2006
• RLC Premier South Division: Winners 2005 2006 2009
• RLC Premier South Grand Final: Winners 2005, Winners 2006
• RLC Premier South Division: Runners Up 2007 2008
• RLC Premier South Grand Final: Runners Up 2007 2008 2009
• London Amateur Rugby League (2nd XIII): Winners 2006
• Gordon Anderton Memorial Trophy: Runners Up 1997-98, 1998-99
• London League Cup: Runners Up 2000
• Rugby League Challenge Cup: 2nd Round 2005
• London U18's Grand Final: Winners 2009

CLUB AND PLAYER RECORDS

• Most Tries in a match: 6 Mark Nesbitt vs Aberavon Fighting Irish - 2003
• Most Goals in a match: 17 Tom Bold vs Bedford Tigers - 2009
• Most Points in a match: 38 Darren Bartley vs Kent Ravens - 2007 Tom Bold vs Bedford Tigers
• Most Tries in a season: 28 Louis Neethling - 2005
• Most Goals in a season: 102 Louis Neethling - 2005
• Most Points in a season: 316 Louis Neethling - 2005
• Most First Grade Appearances: 102 Carl Zacharow - (2002-present)
• Most Points Scored: 102 vs Bedford Tigers - 2009
• Most Points Conceded: 100 vs Crawley Jets - 2000 & West London Sharks - 2002
• Biggest Home Win: (90 points) 94-4 vs London Skolars - 2005 & 102-12 vs Bedford Tigers - 2009
• Biggest Away Win: (72 points) 76-4 vs Sunderland Nissan - 2005 & Greenwich Admirals - 2005
• Biggest Home Defeat: (90 points) 0-90 vs London Skolars - 2001
• Biggest Away Defeat: (98 points) 2-100 vs Crawley Jets - 2000
• Highest Scoring Game: 114 points vs Bedford Tigers (102-12) - 2009
• Lowest Scoring Game: 22 vs Ipswich Rhinos (18-4) - 2007
• Longest Undefeated Run: 14 games - 24 June 2006 to 30 June 2007
• Longest Run Without a Win: 9 games - 6 May 2000 to 1 July 2000      
  
  Please visit our wikipedia page
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_London_Storm