London Scottish is proud to announce a sponsorship deal with FirstCape Wines, after being the sponsor of the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa in 2009.
They are equally delighted to support a club with such fabled heritage, and by extending the brand's connection with top-class rugby union teams.
FirstCape was founded in 2002 and stands as the largest selling South African Wine brand in the UK selling in excess of 40 Million bottles in 2009. FirstCape employs in excess of 1,000 people in South Africa across the premium wine lands of the Breede River Valley and the Western Cape.
London Scottish was formed at a general meeting in MacKay's Tavern, 3 Water Lane, Ludgate Hill in London on Wednesday April 10th 1878. From this beginning the club has gone on to produce more international players for Scotland and more Scotland, British and Irish Lions captains than any other club. London Scottish styled itself on an FC, though strictly all purely rugby clubs formed after 1864 should have been RFCs. The club played its first matches in the 1878-79 seasons, 15 of which were all against mainly local sides of whom only Wasps still exists.
London Scottish won the Middlesex 7s several times in the 1960s, and was high in the old Merit Tables before leagues were introduced. The club formed a professional side in 1995, winning promotion and enjoying premiership rugby before the professional club was disbanded for financial reasons. The original amateur club rejoined the leagues at the bottom of the pyramid in 2000 and since then have steadily progressed to National League 1.
London Scottish Rugby Club is a member of both the Rugby Football Union and the Scottish Rugby Union and shares the ground in Richmond with Richmond FC, having done so since 1894. The club’s goal is to be back in the Championship by 2012-13.
From humble beginnings in 2002, this working agreement between British marketer Brand Phoenix and 38 local producers has grown to become the biggest South African wine on British supermarket shelves and third on the Top-50 list, according the AC Nielsen report of 23rd January 2010. In the last year this dynamic brand moved from a 1.6 million 9L level to over 3.1 million which equates to over 40 million bottles. This constitutes 97% growth in volume, while climbing 89% in value.
Today there are five co-operative cellars and over 200 producers from all over the Breede River Valley that supply grapes to this wine giant.
FirstCape is available in Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose and all good wine stockists.
