Rugby union as we know it was first played in the county in 1850 when Durham School took up the game, and the first club side followed in 1863, when Darlington was formed.

 

In October 1876 the Durham County Rugby Football Union was formed, with a preliminary meeting on 10 October followed by the first recorded meeting of representatives later that month on the 31st.

The 31 October meeting was chaired by P.B. Junor and attended by representatives from six local clubs; Bensham, Darlington, Durham University, Houghton, Stockton, Sunderland and Westoe.

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An official county team was formed soon after the creation of the Durham County RFU, with games in the early years largely restricted to meetings with nearby Yorkshire. In 1878 Durham went further afield, linking up with Northumberland to send a combined side down to face Lancashire.

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As the union started to grow, new clubs appeared such as Hartlepool Rovers (1879) and West Hartlepool (1881). In the middle of this a Challenge Cup competition was introduced in 1880, giving the clubs proper competition and in turn increasing the popularity of rugby union in the region.

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Durham became a member of the Rugby Football Union in 1882, and the advent of the County Championship in 1890 saw the County among the first counties to take part in this illustrious competition. We won Our first championship in 1900, beating Devon 11–3 in the final held at Exeter, and we quickly went on to dominate the County Championships. In between 1900 and 1910 the county had appeared in all ten finals, coming away with six victories, one of which was shared with Devon. During this period of dominance, Durham boasted an overall record of having scored 740 points to their opponents 293.