Although officially founded in 1860 as Manchester Football Club, a Manchester team actually first played in 1857, when the Gentlemen of
Manchester and the Gentlemen of
Liverpool came together to play a friendly game.
Richard Sykes, a former Captain of Football at
Rugby School set up the Manchester team and provided the ball. The game was advertised as "Rugby versus the World" and some fifty players arrived to play. There is no record of the score, however it appears that five tries were scored and so there must have been a winner. Liverpool FC, who later merged with St Helens RUFC to form
Liverpool St. Helens F.C, came into being not long afterwards. It is not known why Manchester did not also form at this date but the Liverpool and St Helens clubs' merger in 1986 left Manchester as one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world. From 1919 until 1968 the club's home ground was at
Moor Lane on
Kersal Moor, now the home of
Salford City F.C. Manchester had very strong links with the early RFU, with two former presidents of MFC also taking the same office as President of the RFU (James MacLaren 1882–1884 and
Roger Walker) 1894–1896. Other members who have been President of the RFU are J.W.H.Thorpe (1898–1900), James Milnes (1934), J.Reg.Locker (1967) and Dr.T.A.Kemp, MD, FRCP (1971). The club has provided a number of international players since 1871. The club provided four England players in the world's first ever international match against Scotland in 1871 (
Richard Osborne,
William MacLaren,
Arthur Sumner Gibson and
H.J.C. Turner). Another former player was
Albert Neilson Hornby, the first ever player to captain England at both rugby and
cricket. The earliest international jersey is still on display in the clubhouse.
Andrew Bulteel and
Ernest Marriott both played for England in the last 20 a-side match against Ireland in 1875. Manchester FC were also the first recognised
association football side in Manchester. In 1894 Newton Heath (present day
Manchester United) were banned from changing their name to Manchester FC by the FA and RFU because of the existence of the rugby side. The full story of Manchester FC's association football history is detailed in
Manchester A Football History where it is revealed they hold many Mancunian firsts, though the side that played Queen's Park Scotland in 1883, losing 15-0 were not Manchester FC, but their local rivals
Manchester Association. Manchester Rugby Club are the current holders of the unenviable record of the longest ever losing streak in club rugby. The Cheshire-based rugby union Men's side finally laid to rest the ‘record breaking’ ghost of eighty seven consecutive league losses spanning just more than three years on 24 March 2012. This was following some poor financial decisions by the rugby management, after being promoted to National League One when the club narrowly avoided bankruptcy. ==Manchester Women's Rugby==