Get your hoopiest shirt on and start queueing outside Walkabout - it's Rugby World Cup year again (even though England haven't got a cat in Hell's chance of winning), so Ralph Shepherd kicks off a monthly look at the local Union side with a potted history, its current lodger status at Meadow Lane, the unbalanced relationship between Nottingham and Leicester's rugby teams, happier times in the National League One, and the possible emergence of rugger as a serious sport in Hood-Town...

Nottingham RFC - otherwise known as the 'Green and Whites' - can draw its history right back to the very birth of the sport, when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball during a football game at Rugby School and ran with it. One of the pupils there was a Nottinghamian called Alick Birkin, who returned home in 1877, gathered some friends together, and formed a team. Not bad going for a 16 year-old.

Birkin, or Sir Alexander Russell Birkin, to give him his full title, maintained his active interest in the club until his death in 1942. For many years afterwards, the Birkin family were Nottingham RFC - members of the family being associated with the club from 1877 to 1956. Without their commitment, the club would never have got off the ground. Indeed, the ground at Ireland Avenue, Beeston, was given to the club in 1904 by Leslie Birkin, brother of Alick. Ireland Avenue remained the club's home until its sale in 2006. It wasn't really the best of places to have a ground - for the first 75 years, Ireland Ave was regularly flooded whenever the Trent burst its banks and a dispute with the local pub landlord (no doubt due to some rugger-bugger tomfoolery) meant the club were barred out and had to change in nearby stables...

The team now play their matches at Notts County’s ground, Meadow Lane, due to the parlous state of the old Beeston ground. Although the move has caused no little discomfort on both sides, they've so far played 10 matches and have recorded 6 wins (which is certainly better than the Magpies home record as of late) in front of crowds of up to 2,000 punters. Talks over an extended deal have been fractious to say the least, but what we do know is that the rugby club will play the rest of this season's home games at Meadow Lane, and the club's chairman Ken Grundy has said it will raise their stature and profile.

It all seems a far cry from the Green and Whites' golden era of the late 80s, when a number of top international players represented the First XV. Under the coaching of Alan Davies (who went on to coach Wales and the England second team), players such as Rob Andrew, Dusty Hare and Brian Moore (also a British Lion) represented England and Chris Gray turned out for Scotland. Simon Hodgkinson, who is now in the back room staff at Nottingham, broke just about every goal-kicking record going in this time.

During that time, Nottingham RFC scored its highest position in the league - a fourth-placed finish in the top flight. The Green and Whites also narrowly missed out on a Cup final by little more than a coat of paint - Hodgkinson's last kick of a semi-final at Harlequins hitting the inside of a post and flashing across the face of goal.

However, with the advent of professionalism in Union, and the previously amateur game becoming more obsessed with finances, Nottingham RFC found it hard to compete. They fell on hard times, to the extent that the First XV narrowly avoided relegation into the regional divisions in 2002/03. The club has bounced back since then, and was promoted into National League One in 2003/04. The club finished a creditable 7th in 2005/06 before leaving Ireland Avenue after 102 years.

A question that is always talked about in pubs, club meetings and by Nottingham rugby fans is why is it that Leicester Tigers are thriving in the sport whilst Notts trails far behind. It's mainly down to the cities' education systems; Leicester schools took up the sport very quickly, a large network of junior teams developed and before too long three clubs merged to form the Tigers - which very quickly became one of best supported teams in the country. Nottingham, on the other hand, came down firmly on the side of football, and it's been a lifelong struggle for local rugby teams to attract attention ever since.

However, it's not always been a one-sided rivalry; the gap between the two was closed in the 70s and 80s, and Nottingham actually beat the Tigers in 1972. Now that the Green and Whites have some semblance of a secure base, the fact Nottingham's ever-expanding universities have introduced more of a rugby-aware audience to the city and the chance that the forthcoming Rugby World Cup will attract more punters to the domestic game, we could be on the verge of a great upsurge in Nottingham RFC's fortunes.