from the very first year onward, the lions rugby club has entered the national championship where the team qualified for the semi-final play-offs. later on, in may 2010, thessaloniki lions play their first international match against a serbian club, krusevac wolves, at krusevac. after a big fight and lot of sweat, the team wins the game very hard by 28-29 against a young and voluntary team. a year after (2011), the club managed to finish third at the national championship after two athenian clubs: athens rfc and attica springboks. during the 2012-2013 season, after a tough championship start and a defeat against iraklis rfc, the team becomes better throughout the season managing their first ever victory over defending champions athens rfc at homeground. lions won the match 16-8 on january 26, 2013; enabling them to dream of the title in 2013. according to the ranking of the federation, thessaloniki lions finish second. however, the participating teams file a claim in court for various irregularities made by the federation and its board of directors. in october 2013, the club decides to leave the national championship in order to join a championship which was not recognized by the national federation, named as: unity cup. it consisted of seven teams: attica springboks, panathinaïkos (ex-athens rfc), spartans, aeolos patras, peristeri and the titans of kavala. on november 2, 2013, the lions play their first unity cup match against the titans kavala. after five seasons, the club leaves the national championship like six other teams of the country. in september 2014 an administrative decision issued by the ministry of sports in greece announced the dissolution of the national federation of rugby for false declarations of clubs having a rugby activity in previous years. indeed, the greek law provides that a federation can exist only according to a threshold of official clubs which was denounced in this announcement.