ULR Samurai International RFC is one of the most prestigious, recognised, and feared teams on the International circuit. Famed for their striking kit, professional attitude and on-field flair, they have grown in to arguably the world’s most successful invitational sevens team.

The team was founded in 1996 by Terry Sands when he was asked to enter a team into the 25th Amsterdam Sevens. Inspired by the spirit and tenacity of the Japanese team at the 1995 world cup, Sands dubbed his new team “Samurai Rugby” with the goal of encapsulating the passionate, adventurous and free flowing style of rugby that had first brought the 'Cherry Blossoms' to his attention.

Playing fantastic running rugby in their striking, unique playing kit, the Samurai team won their first ever event, the prestigious Amsterdam 7s. After catching the eye in the Netherlands, Sands began to receive many more invitations to bring this exciting new team to other tournaments. In its inaugural year, Samurai won all three tournaments it entered. A sevens monster was born.

Initially self-funded, the team found it hard to attend all the numerous invitations they received from the all over the world but, with success came support from a number of local businesses. Samurai was soon to become a global phenomenon playing in Hong Kong, Dubai, the USA, Cayman Islands, Trinidad, Australia, Kenya, Zambia as well as many more. By the year 2000, Samurai had achieved notoriety not only in the UK but all over the world.

It was in the year 2000 that Samurai came of age with an invitation to the prestigious Middlesex Sevens tournament at Twickenham, an honour that very few invitational teams had ever received. With support from American company 3dfx, a team was put together with players from Fiji, Australia, South Africa and the UK. This international flavour was something that sat well with the Samurai committee who soon renamed the club to Samurai International RFC. Another name change took place simultaneously with Sands’ rugby gear supply company, Titan Sports, becoming the now-famous Samurai Sportswear.

At the end of the year, Norwich-based loss recovery specialists ULR signed a generous long-term sponsorship deal with the club which saw Samurai enter more tournaments around the world, sporting their exclusive playing kit which featured the famous ‘rising sun’ logo and full ULR branding. Samurai Sportswear has developed into one of the leading custom-sportswear brands in the world with its cutting-edge kit at the forefront of performance technology.

Since the turn of the century, Samurai International RFC has gone on to achieve huge success all over the world with particularly notable victories in New York, Cayman Islands and of course contributing to a record-breaking nine Amsterdam titles, including six on-the-trot since 2005.

2010 saw Samurai win the inaugural nine-team UK National Sevens Series, pipping the British Army to the post over four gruelling tournaments across the UK. A hugely successful summer culminated in one of Samurai International’s most memorable victories – that of The Middlesex Charity Sevens. In a repeat of the 2009 final, a truly international Samurai side captained by South Africa 7s legend Marius Schoeman, gained revenge on a star-studded London Irish team to lift arguably the most prestigious invitational trophy around.

With sevens’ inclusion in the 2016 Olympics, the sport is definitely on the up and Samurai International RFC is at the forefront of this evolution. To buy in to the team’s professional ethos and represent this famous team is an honour many players aspire to and will do for years to come.