Burgess Hill Rugby Football Club or BHRFC, known as the Sussex All Blacks, is a rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 club in Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The team currently fields a 1st XV in the Sussex Spitfire 1

Sussex Spitfire 1

Sussex Spitfire 1, also known as Sussex 1 is an English level 9 Rugby Union League. It is made up of teams predominantly from Sussex. The twelve teams play home and away matches from September through to April....

 league, and a 2nd XV in the Sussex 'Oranjeboom' 2 West league.

The team is based at the Southway Recreation ground, on Poveys Close, Burgess Hill

Burgess Hill

Burgess Hill is a civil parish and a town primarily located in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park...

, which is owned and managed by Mid Sussex District Council

Mid Sussex

Mid Sussex is a local government district in the English county of West Sussex. It contains the towns of East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill....

.

History

The club was formed in late 1961 and the first game was played towards the end of the 1961-2 season away to Hove Yeoman (3rd XV), winning the game 28-0. The first matches were played in a white and blue kit, but at the end of the season the club voted to move to an all black strip.

The first full season was in 1962-3 and the team was based at the Fairfield recreation ground, with social aspects being undertaken at the Kings Head public house. The social venue moved on to the Potters and then to the Junction Inn until a permanent club house was built in 1970 at the Southway recreation ground, where the club is based to this day.