Although only officially founded in the winter of 2000, the seeds of Otters Rugby grew out of members of The Holt Hall, Loughborough University in 1999. Otters Rugby’s early forays into the competitive UK sevens circuit were inauspicious. 2000 culminated in a late entry into the by-now-famous Loughborough Town 7s, where, playing as The Holt Hall, the future Otters failed to assert themselves. Reporting on the 2000 tournament, the 2001 programme recorded that “Ali GBs won Group Eight with wins over Holt Hall by 36-14’, also noting that “in the Bowl tournament, both semi-finals were one-sided, with Loughborough beating Holt Hall 52-7”. 

However, from these uncompromising beginnings, Otters Rugby grew strong. Two years on and it was a different story: with numerous survivors from that Holt team who crashed so disastrously, a battle-weary Otters Rugby bowed out to Team Sanders - the eventual tournament winners - in the cup quarter-final by 26-21, a solitary try separating the sides.

Otters Rugby’s breakthrough year occurred in 2003. The season got off to the best possible start when The O-UNIT demolished all-comers at the Winchester 7s, winning the final by a comfortable margin. The Hampshire Chronicle, reporting, noted that, “the top team on the day was Otters Rugby, a team of Loughborough Students who showed tremendous fitness, skill and determination to overcome the Scorpions in the final”. This tournament victory delivered the necessary injection of confidence Otters Rugby had been lacking.

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