Wasps FC: 1866–1995 Hampstead Football Club was founded in 1866. The 1930s also saw the emergence of Neville Compton, who captained the side between 1939 and 1947 and went on to become fixture secretary in 1959 and eventually became the club president in the early 1970s before retiring in 1988. Wasps went on to host Welsh internationals Vivian Jenkins and
Harry Bowcott, in addition to this national representation, numerous Wasps came to play for the
England national side, such as
Ted Woodward, Bob Stirling,
Richard Sharp and Don Rutherford. In 1967, the Wasps club celebrated their centenary. Celebrations took the form of two matches that were held at the
Rugby school grounds, where
William Webb Ellis is thought to have originated the rugby union game. One match was played against the
Barbarian F.C., the other, against another London rugby union club, the Harlequins. In 1986, Wasps Football Club made their first appearance at the final of the
John Player Cup knock-out competition, which originated in 1972. Wasps were defeated by
Bath in a close game, where Bath emerged as winners, 25 points to 17. The following year Wasps continued their success in the knock-out competition and they again met Bath in the final. They were however again defeated by Bath in a close game, Bath winning 19 points to 12. Wasp
Rob Andrew captained England against
Romania in 1989. In 1990, Andrew captained Wasps to their first Courage League title, as they narrowly pipped
Orrell R.U.F.C. to be English champions. In 1995 Wasps lost 16–36 to
Bath in the final of the
Pilkington Cup. It was their first appearance in the final since 1987 and 1986, when their opponents – and the eventual winners – on both occasions were also Bath. After winning the title, Wasps regularly finished in the top three of the Courage league title, although they were never quite good enough to overcome Bath, the pre-eminent club of the time. Then in 1995–96, with many pundits predicting Wasps could make a run for the title, Rob Andrew took up a lucrative deal to become Player Manager of Newcastle Falcons. He recruited several other leading Wasps, including, most notably, Club Captain Dean Ryan. For a few weeks Wasps looked like becoming the first casualty of the professional era as the backbone of their team had left. But under newly appointed captain Lawrence Dallaglio, the club steadied the ship, and managed to finish fourth, and secure a place in the following season's Heineken Cup, which English teams were entering for the first time.
Wasps RFC: 1996–1999 The following season,
1996–97, Wasps won their second league championship, and became the first English Champions of the new professional era. It was an equally momentous season off the field. The club split into two parts, with the professional side becoming part of Loftus Road Holdings PLC, who also owned
Queens Park Rangers F.C. One element of the deal saw Wasps move from their traditional Sudbury home to share QPR's
Loftus Road stadium. In 1998, the now-professional Wasps again reached the final of the
Tetley's Bitter Cup, but lost 18–48 to a strong
Saracens side. The following year Wasps again reached the final, they defeated
Newcastle Falcons 29–19 to claim their first cup final win. In 2000 Wasps reached the final for the third consecutive year, successfully defending their title in a 31–23 victory over
Northampton Saints.
London Wasps: 1999–2014 In the summer of 1999, the professional team – which had been operating as Wasps RFC (professional) since the 1996–97 season – was renamed as London Wasps, to differentiate it from
Wasps FC, the amateur side of the club. At the same time they adopted a new logo, which was selected as being in keeping with the club's history. In 2001 ex-Wigan rugby league star
Shaun Edwards joined as a coach. He has largely been credited with creating Wasps' famous
Blitz Defence that stops teams and is the basis for Wasps' own scoring chances. London Wasps agreed to move out of Loftus Road to allow
Fulham F.C. to groundshare for two seasons between 2002 and 2004, while their ground,
Craven Cottage, was redeveloped. They became tenants to
Wycombe Wanderers F.C. at
Adams Park at the end of the 2001–02 season. The success of Wasps at their new ground meant they did not return to Loftus Road after Fulham left. In the
2002–03 European Challenge Cup, Wasps made their way to the final, where they met
Bath. Though Bath beat them in numerous finals in the 1990s, Wasps emerged as champions, winning 48–30 at the
Madejski Stadium. They also defeated
Northampton Saints in the Premiership semi-final, after finishing second in the league table. They then faced
Gloucester in the final at
Twickenham, to win in their first English title since 1997, by 39 points to 3. Wasps finished top of their pool in the
2003–04 Heineken Cup, where they went on to defeat
Gloucester at the quarter-finals and won a final berth after beating
Munster 37–32 in the semi-finals. They met
Toulouse in the final at Twickenham, where they became champions, defeating the French side 27–20, winning their first
Heineken Cup. Wasps followed up the win the following week, again at Twickenham, by beating Bath to retain the title of England's champion side, and complete a double. In December 2004 the RFU revealed that the team was to be disqualified from the
Powergen Cup for fielding an ineligible player,
hooker Jonny Barrett, in a sixth-round game against
Bristol. Wasps went through the season well, after the cup glitch, and retained the English title for a second time, by beating
Leicester Tigers in the final at Twickenham. Edwards, however, was not a totally happy man as Wasps conceded their first try of the three Premiership finals in the dying minutes.
Warren Gatland signed off at Wasps with a rare smile to continue his coaching with
Waikato in
New Zealand.
Ian McGeechan became the new Director of Rugby at Wasps from the 2005–06 season, taking over from Gatland. Wasps won the
Powergen Anglo-Welsh Cup in the 2005–06 season, beating
Llanelli Scarlets in the final at Twickenham. Before the 2006–07 season began, Wasps won the Middlesex 7s in Twickenham, beating
Leicester Tigers in the final. In England's game against Wales at the
Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in the
2007 Six Nations Championship, Wasps supplied the back row of the scrum,
James Haskell,
Joe Worsley and
Tom Rees all made an appearance. This was the first time that any club supplied the entire back row. Unfortunately for England, Wales won the encounter 27 to 18. In the 2006–07 Heineken Cup, Wasps qualified by topping their group for a home quarter-final. They were drawn against
Leinster on 31 March. There was a full house at
Adams Park, and three players in total were sent to the
sin bin,
Lawrence Dallaglio in the last moments of the first half,
Dominic Waldouck of London Wasps and
Malcolm O'Kelly of
Leinster later spent time there as well. The final score was 35–13 to wasps. In the semi-final at Coventry City's
Ricoh Arena on 22 April, Wasps beat
Northampton 30–13 and in doing so, gained a place in the Heineken Cup Final against Leicester Tigers at Twickenham. Leicester Tigers were the favourites, as they had already won the Anglo-Welsh cup and the Guinness Premiership, the latter just the week before. Wasps went ahead early, and while Leicester kept in the match, Wasps won 25–9, thanks to penalties by
Alex King and tries by
Raphaël Ibañez and
Eoin Reddan to become 2007 champions. During the 2007–08 season, Wasps went from 10th in the league during October, to beat Leicester Tigers in the Guinness Premiership Final. This sealed a dream send-off for the retiring Lawrence Dallaglio at Twickenham. Wasps won 26–16 thanks to penalties by
Mark van Gisbergen and tries by Josh Lewsey and Tom Rees to become the English 2008 champions. Wasps have now won six league titles in all, equal with Bath and just one behind Leicester. The 2008–09 season was to see Wasps come unstuck. With their captain having retired, many of the players failed to play to their full potential. Wasps would eventually finish in seventh place, having also failed to reach the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup and EDF Anglo Welsh Cup. On 12 May 2009 it was announced in the evening standard that Ian McGeechan had been forced to step down and will now take a consultancy role both at London Wasps and London Scottish. This was confirmed by the BBC on 14 May. Tony Hanks, a former coach at the club, was announced as the new Director of Rugby soon after. He had more recently been coaching at
Waikato and also been a stand in for McGeechan for the latter part of the 2008/09 season, while he was primarily committed to
British and Irish Lions duty. McGeechan had technically been a Lions employee for the whole season and through agreement with Wasps was loaned back to the club. The 2009–10 season started off with an exodus of key players including
James Haskell and
Tom Palmer who moved to
Stade Français,
Riki Flutey who also crossed the channel to join Brive and
Eoin Reddan who left to join Leinster in Ireland. In late February it was announced that
Danny Cipriani would be leaving for the
Melbourne Rebels in Australia and he was determined to leave on a high. After beating Gloucester 42–26 in the quarter-final of the
Amlin Cup scoring five tries (including a hat-trick from winger
Tom Varndell), Wasps lost 15–18 at home to
Cardiff Blues in the semi-final with
Dave Walder kicking all of Wasps points with five penalties. Cardiff subsequently beat French Top 14 side
Toulon in the final of the competition at the
Stade Vélodrome in
Marseille. Shaun Edwards left the club in November 2011. Wasps had a poor 2011–12 season, finishing in their lowest position for many seasons in 11th place, narrowly avoiding relegation from the Premiership. The season was notable for a good start where Wasps beat with a 15–20 reigning champions Saracens at Twickenham in the opening match and then runners-up Leicester in the second match with a 35–29. Things went downhill from there on as the worst injury toll known to professional rugby union hit the squad with a combined total of 16 serious and long-term injuries and retirements. Dai Young recruited well through the summer bringing in players such as Andrea Masi (2012 6 Nations Player Of The Tournament) and Stephen Jones. He also welcomed back former Wasps Tom Palmer and James Haskell. Wasps beat their record of their European highest-scoring margin with a 90–17 win against
Viadana on 12 October 2013, beating the 77–17 margin of victory against Toulouse on 26 October 1996.
Wasps Rugby relocation to West Midlands: 2014 On 30 June 2014, the club announced that the "London" prefix of the name had been dropped, returning to Wasps for the first time since the re-branding in 1999. In September 2014,
Simon Gilbert, of the
Coventry Telegraph reported the side were in talks to permanently relocate to the
Ricoh Arena in
Coventry, from their home at
Adams Park, in
High Wycombe. In October 2014 Wasps announced that from December 2014 they would play their home games at the
Ricoh Arena. On 14 November 2014 Wasps confirmed the purchase of the final 50% of shares in the stadium from the Higgs Charity to become outright owners of the facility. Their first game as owners was a 48–16 win against
London Irish on 21 December 2014.
Wasps in Coventry: 2014–2022 The 2014–15 season saw Wasps finish 6th.
Andy Goode was the Premiership's top scorer, ending the season with 240 points. Things improved for Wasps in the 2015–16 season, with them finishing 3rd in the league. They lost their play-off semi-final with eventual runners-up Exeter Chiefs. Wasps finished 1st in the 2016–17 regular season. Despite this success, Wasps went on to lose to Exeter Chiefs in the play-off final, having beaten Leicester in the semi-final. In the 2017–18 regular season, Wasps finished 3rd. They faced Saracens in the semi-final play-off, but lost 57–33. The 2017–18 season marked 150 years since the foundation of Wasps Rugby Football Club and was celebrated with an anniversary game against Bath Rugby. The 2018–19 campaign saw Wasps slip to an 8th-place finish overall. Across the season, Wasps recorded 10 wins and 12 losses. The 2019–20 Gallagher Premiership Season saw huge improvement for Wasps who finished 2nd in the table (71 points) behind league leaders Exeter Chiefs (74 points). As a result of finishing 2nd, Wasps earned a home semi-final against Bristol Bears on Saturday 10 October 2020 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Wasps won 47–24 earning a place in the Gallagher Premiership Final on Saturday 24 October 2020 against Exeter Chiefs at Twickenham Stadium. In a repeat of the outcome of the 2016–17 Final, Wasps were defeated by Exeter Chiefs. The result was 19–13. The 2020–21 season saw another slump for Wasps who fell out of the Top 4 playoff positions, finishing 8th in the table. In May 2021 it was announced that Wasps' home stadium would be renamed to the Coventry Building Society Arena. On Monday 19 July 2021, Wasps announced a new logo to bring all elements of Wasps including the Netball team, Women and Amateur rugby sides under one new visual identity.
Financial troubles and administration: 2022 On 15 May 2022, Wasps failed to repay the £35 million
bond finance they had raised in 2015, however stated they hoped to re-finance by 13 August. On 13 August 2022, Wasps did not refinance the bond, with owner Derek Richardson stating "we are not in administration and we are not going to be" after rumours of administration appeared on the internet. On 21 September 2022, Wasps Holdings announced their intention to appoint administrators due to ongoing financial difficulty. After a second notice of intention was filed on 4 October, the club were suspended from all tournaments on 12 October due to inability to field a team and Wasps Holdings were placed into administration on 17 October 2022 with all their playing and coaching staff made redundant. The team had their current results removed and were also relegated to the
RFU Championship, the second tier of English rugby. On 30 October it was confirmed that the administrators had accepted an offer from a consortium to buy the club, with the RFU expecting a 'decision ahead of Christmas.' The club confirmed on 16 December that the club had been successfully sold and exited administration. It was also confirmed that they had satisfied all RFU requirements to join the Championship from the 2023–24 season. They were rumoured to be remaining in the West Midlands as they were rumoured to have agreed a groundshare with
Solihull Moors at the
ARMCO Arena. Following an extended deadline of 14 February 2023 to submit an application to the RFU Wasps were announced as formally able to compete in the Championship for the 2023–24 season on 15 February. However, this position was rescinded on 18 May 2023 as a result of a failure to hit a deadline to confirm commitments made when the licence was first approved in December. As a result, they were immediately placed "at the bottom of the playing pyramid in tier ten" of the
English rugby union system, but as of 2025 are yet to resume competitive play.
Proposed move to Swanley In 2023 a
Sevenoaks District Council spokesman said that Wasps, owned by Christopher Holland, were considering building a multi-use stadium, training facilities, a hotel, and enabling development on the outskirts of
Swanley, Kent. ==Rivalries==