| 2008–09 Rugby-Bundesliga | |
| Champions: | SC Frankfurt 1880 |
| Count: | 6 |
| Runners-Up: | Heidelberger RK |
| Relegated: | DRC Hannover |
| Matches Played: | 75 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Thorsten Wiedemann (212) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Alexander Pipa (22) |
| Prevseason: | 2007–08 |
| Nextseason: | 2009–10 |
The Rugby-Bundesliga 2008-09 was the 38th edition of this competition and the 89th edition of the German rugby union championship. Nine teams play a home-and-away season with a finals round between the top four teams at the end. The bottom two teams determine which club is relegated in an end-of-season decider. The season started on 30 August 2008 and finished with the championship final on 23 May 2009, interrupted by a winter break from early December to late February.
The competition was won by the SC Frankfurt 1880 the previous season.
The 2008-09 modus was somewhat different from the previous season. The competition had been expanded from eight to nine teams. The final, which used to be determined by the top-two teams of the regular season was now played by the two winners of the semi-finals which pair the first placed team against the fourth and the second against the third.
At the bottom end of the table, a relegation match between the two last-placed teams was also a new introduction. All up, the number of season games in the Rugby-Bundesliga increased to 76 from 57.
This change of modus was decided upon on 19 July 2008 at the annual general meeting of the German rugby association, the DRV. It was decided to expand the league to ten teams for 2009-10, meaning only one club was to be relegated in 2009, and two promoted. It was also then decided to introduce the extended play-off format.[1]
The defending champion was SC 1880 Frankfurt, who beat RG Heidelberg in the 2007-08 final, while the RK 03 Berlin was newly promoted to the league.
With Kerstin Ljungdahl[2] and Dana Teagarden,[3] two female head referees have been officiating in the Rugby-Bundesliga in 2008-09.
| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 693 | 227 | 466 | 70 | ||
| 2 | 16 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 464 | 212 | 252 | 56 | ||
| 3 | 16 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 423 | 287 | 136 | 49 | ||
| 4 | 16 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 441 | 328 | 113 | 48 | ||
| 5 | 16 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 323 | 281 | 42 | 46 | ||
| 6 | 16 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 521 | 377 | 144 | 46 | ||
| 7 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 336 | 515 | -179 | 29 | ||
| 8 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 195 | 688 | -493 | 11 | ||
| 9 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 176 | 657 | -481 | 0 |
The leading try scores in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2008–09 season were (10 tries or more):
| Player | Club | Tries | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Pipa | TSV Handschuhsheim | align=center | 22 | |
 Bevan Grey | RK Heusenstamm | align=center | 13 | |
| Jason Campell | SC 1880 Frankfurt | align=center | 10 | |
| Marcus Seuseu | SC 1880 Frankfurt | align=center | 10 | |
 Jovesa Naivalu | SC 1880 Frankfurt | align=center | 10 |
The leading point scores in the Rugby-Bundesliga 2008–09 season were (100 points or more):
| Player | Club | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thorsten Wiedemann | TSV Handschuhsheim | align=center | 212 | |
| Braam Pretorius | Heidelberger RK | align=center | 211 | |
| Lars Eckert | SC Neuenheim | align=center | 137 | |
| Fabian Heimpel | RG Heidelberg | align=center | 129 | |
| Alexander Pipa | TSV Handschuhsheim | align=center | 110 |
The top try and point scorers per club were:
| Club | Player | Tries | Player | Points | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berliner RC[4] | Gerrit van Look | align=center | 8 | Sebastian Freund | align=center | 74 | |
| RK 03 Berlin[5] | Robin Knüpfer | align=center | 7 | Robin Knüpfer | align=center | 35 | |
| SC 1880 Frankfurt[6] | Jason Campell Marcus Seuseu Jovesa Naivalu | align=center | 10 | align=center | 80 | ||
| TSV Handschuhsheim[7] | Alexander Pipa | align=center | 22 | Thorsten Wiedemann | align=center | 212 | |
| DRC Hannover[8] | Sven Pausch | align=center | 4 | Dan Richards | align=center | 33 | |
| RG Heidelberg[9] | Mustafa Güngör | align=center | 7 | Fabian Heimpel | align=center | 129 | |
| Heidelberger RK[10] | Pieter Johannes Jordaan | align=center | 9 | Braam Pretorius | align=center | 211 | |
| RK Heusenstamm[11] | Bevan Grey | align=center | 13 | Mark Sztyndera | align=center | 82 | |
| SC Neuenheim[12] |  Juan Cabanas | align=center | 9 | Lars Eckert | align=center | 137 |
See main article: Rugby-Bundesliga 2008–09 results.
| Club | SCF | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SC 1880 Frankfurt | - | 27-22 | 24-14 | 67-7 | 54-13 | 81-19 | 30-9 | 69-0 | 50-0 | |
| Heidelberger RK | 13-23 | - | 38-3 | 12-10 | 23-17 | 38-8 | 33-5 | 56-0 | 78-7 | |
| SC Neuenheim | 16-46 | 31-23 | - | 13-8 | 23-28 | 18-6 | 37-15 | 69-14 | 49-7 | |
| Berliner RC | 20-12 | 15-35 | 31-16 | - | 29-13 | 22-19 | 88-15 | 59-0 | 30-15 | |
| RG Heidelberg | 15-29 | 3-5 | 19-15 | 20-6 | - | 12-6 | 38-19 | 17-5 | 35-10 | |
| TSV Handschuhsheim | 36-31 | 25-12 | 16-20 | 53-21 | 9-16 | - | 28-25 | 78-7 | 64-12 | |
| RK Heusenstamm | 29-53 | 10-36 | 7-27 | 19-24 | 28-23 | 22-29 | - | 37-20 | 41-12 | |
| RK 03 Berlin | 7-44 | 17-25 | 5-27 | 14-42 | 14-36 | 12-73 | 17-20 | - | 34-23 | |
| DRC Hannover | 7-53 | 11-15 | 0-45 | 5-29 | 6-18 | 28-52 | 20-35 | 13-29 | - |
| Home win | Draw | Away win | Game not played (awarded) |
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See main article: Rugby-Bundesliga 2008–09 squads.
| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | 16 | 0 | 2 | 778 | 217 | 561 | 77 | ||
| 2 | 18 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 515 | 166 | 349 | 72 | ||
| 3 | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 445 | 357 | 88 | 57 | ||
| 4 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 451 | 350 | 91 | 48 | ||
| 5 | 18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 334 | 442 | -108 | 37 | ||
| 6 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 270 | 393 | -123 | 37 | ||
| 7 | RC Mainz ‡ | 18 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 343 | 513 | -170 | 33 | |
| 8 | Heidelberger RK II ‡ | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 265 | 472 | -207 | 31 | |
| 9 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 256 | 380 | -124 | 30 | ||
| 10 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 259 | 616 | -357 | 24 |
| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1138 | 135 | 1003 | 87 | ||
| 2 | 18 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 720 | 246 | 474 | 72 | ||
| 3 | 18 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 804 | 271 | 533 | 69 | ||
| 4 | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 632 | 311 | 321 | 56 | ||
| 5 | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 509 | 328 | 181 | 52 | ||
| 6 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 452 | 401 | 51 | 45 | ||
| 7 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 250 | 813 | -563 | 20 | ||
| 8 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 235 | 891 | -656 | 19 | ||
| 9 | 18 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 201 | 857 | -656 | 15 | ||
| 10 | SG Schwalbe/DRC Hannover II ‡ | 18 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 114 | 802 | -688 | -7 |
In 2008-09, 16 teams took part in the national cup competition, those being the eight clubs who played in the Bundesliga in 2007-08 plus the top-four of each of the two 2nd Bundesligas that season.
Source:Web site: DRV-Pokal 2008-09. 2009-04-15. Rugby-web.de.
