St. Ives Rugby Club had its birth in April 1956 when “a motley team of 12 year olds trooped onto the field to inaugurate the Saints tradition”. At this time, St. Ives was still a largely rural community made up of market gardens and orchards. The intervening years have seen a remarkable transformation from this humble beginning to one of the strongest, most consistent and most successful Sub-district clubs in existence.

Mr Frederick Layton started the club with his Under 12s team that he used to go around and collect before the game, and then deliver home after the match. Home games were played at Hassell Park, then a “gibber” ground, half its present size. The dedication of Fred Layton was vital to the survival of the Club, which was incorporated with the Terrey Hills Club until the late 60s. He was its President from the outset, and remained so for ten crucial years. Early Club meetings were held in church or school rooms and often in private homes.
Whilst a struggle at the outset, the rapid growth of the district as a suburban area in the mid 1960s, saw a tremendous growth in the junior ranks. 1959 saw the Club win its first premiership through the Under 10s. In 1963-64 the Club won the Conway Cup for the most successful junior club in N.S.W. The Under 18s won the premiership and the Under 21s were narrowly beaten in their Grand-final this year. The Saints winning habit was well underway. In 1965-66, the Club fielded eight Under 8 teams and one or two teams in each age group to Under 21s.

In 1967, the Club entered its first team in the Sub-district competition. In 1969 this became two teams. The Sub-district teams went from strength to strength, winning their first premierships, the McLean Cup in 1972 and the Barraclough Cup in 1973, a win that saw the Club’s promotion to the Kentwell Division made imminent. 1972 also saw the Club move into the Clubhouse at Hassell Park, thus heralding a new era. In 1973, the Club sent its first contingent of two teams, the Under 15s and 16s, to New Zealand; a tradition that has endured to the present.

In 1974 and 1976, the Kentwell Cup was won and the following year 21st Birthday celebrations were held in Willoughby Town Hall. The St. Ives Rugby Club had certainly come of age; it was independent, being responsible for its own finances and for the running of its own Clubhouse, and it was having a great deal of success on the paddock in both the Junior and Senior Divisions. The Life Patron (then and now), affectionately referred to as “The Godfather”, wrote
“In a venture such as this, success depends on people, people who are prepared to give of their time, people who don’t just stand back and knock, but who are prepared to give it a go. The Club has these people so we can look forward to a good future.”

These words have proved prophetic as the Club has developed from 1977 to the present. As the Club has enjoyed 30th and 40th year celebrations it has enjoyed many more premierships and has seen the substantial upgrading of its facilities (as are outlined elsewhere on this site). Demographic changes saw Junior numbers drop in the early 1980s, a slide that was arrested with the game’s increased profile with the local staging of the inaugural World Cup in 1987 and Australia’s success in the 1991 World Cup Final. In the mid 1990s player numbers for the Club topped 350 again; a level maintained to the present. A healthy relationship has between the Rugby Club and the St. Ives Cricket Club has flourished, providing use of the clubhouse for the cricketers, many of whom are members of the Rugby Club, filling “the summer void”.

Over the years, St. Ives has maintained its level of representation in representatives, both in Juniors and Seniors. The Premierships have also continued to flow. With over 40 years behind us, St. Ives Rugby Club has good cause to reiterate the Godfather’s claim of more than twenty years ago, “we can look forward to a good future”.