Rugby league in Wales

There is a long history of rugby league in Wales. Over the years many hundreds of players have "gone north" to play for the leading English clubs. Consequentially the national side, nicknamed the Dragons, have often been a very strong force in the game.

History

Rugby union was an increasingly popular sport for Wales in the 1890s and particularly in the south where its popularity was known to rival that of association football. The Welsh coal miners shared the same working class ethos of the miners from the northern counties of England. The impending schism of 1895 tore apart the English rugby union and in the early 1900s, the shock waves where being felt in Wales, though the Welsh Rugby Union were less strict in their interpretation of the amateur ethos and avoided a schism.

Nonetheless, many Welsh players signed for English clubs. The Northern Union's administrators began to ponder the possibilities of international competitions against an English representative side. The first attempt met with a lack of public interest, and the first scheduled Northern Union international, also became the first postponed Northern Union international. It was rescheduled for the 5 April, 1904. The team opposing England was labelled Other Nationalities and consisted of Welshmen and a few Scots. The Other Nationalities proved too strong, defeating the English 9 - 3. In 1905, England gained back some credibility with a 21 - 11 win.

In 1908 a professional "All Blacks" rugby team from New Zealand (nicknamed the All Golds by Australian press) would tour England in what became the first set of international games played under the new NU rules. The All Golds had not played under the Northern Union rules and underwent a week of intensive training. Wales went on to defeat New Zealand 9-8.

Welsh professional clubs

Attempts to introduce professional rugby league for Welsh clubs have, to date, all failed. Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale joined for the 1907/8 season; followed closely behind Aberdare, Barry, Mid-Rhondda, and Treherbert joined in 1908/9.

Aberdare, Barry, and Mid-Rhondda dropped out after that season, with Treherbert following the next year. Merthyr Tydfil lasted until 1910/11, and Ebbw Vale was the last of these to leave, after 1911/12. The next Welsh club was Pontypridd, who joined in 1926/27; only to dropped out after 8 games of the 1927/8 season. A Cardiff club participated in the 1951/2 season, but disbanded after that season.

Following in the footsteps of Fulham (now Harlequins Rugby League), Cardiff City F.C. decided to enter a team for the 1981/2 season. The Blue Dragons, as they were known, shared Ninian Park with the Bluebirds until the 1983/4 season, when the club went into liquidation. They were then moved to Bridgend for the 1984/5 season, where they placed on the bottom of the table, and were expelled after the season for failing to obtain a home ground. The final professional rugby league club was South Wales RLFC, who placed 6th in the Second Division in 1996. Because of small crowds, the club withdrew from the league before the next season.

In 2006 a new professional team, Celtic Crusaders entered the Rugby League National Leagues in League Two.

Governing body

In 1907 The Welsh Northern Union was formed in Wrexham, but the Northern Union refused it affiliation as they wanted the body located in the South of Wales and the WNU soon folded.

In 1926 The RFL formed a Welsh commission in an attempt to convert rugby union clubs to rugby league. The Wales Rugby League achieved governing body status in 2005 and employed its first professional chairman, Mark Rowley, in 2006.

Competitions

Briefly during the 1908-09 season, there were sufficient numbers of clubs to run a separate Welsh section of the competition, alongside the Northern Union's Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues.

From 1949 to 1955 a Welsh league was run by the Welsh commission but it was disbanded due to lack of interest and finance.

Domestically, Welsh rugby league is now largely integrated with English competitions. Amateur Welsh teams form a division in the Rugby League Conference, this division being one of the four "Premier Divisions" of the conference. Celtic Crusaders represent Wales at the professional level within the RFL's structures.

Popularity

With the Rugby League Conference’s growth throughout England, the RFL and its WRL arm, setup an amateur club, the Cardiff Demons. The Demons, who were mainly made up of former players from the university UWIC rugby league club were quite successful and instantly saw interest from other parts of Wales grow.

After two years of just one club, the RFL saw that it was time to expand, letting in six more open-aged sides to form a component of the Rugby League conference. There were then 7 rugby league teams in the Welsh division (with another club North Wales Coasters playing in one of the English divisions due to travelling logistics) of the Rugby League Conference, however in 2006 Blackwood Bulldogs, West Wales Sharks (based in Llanelli) and Pembroke Panthers (based in Tenby) were added. The Welsh division was then divided into two sections Eastern and Western each consisting of five teams. Matches between them generally draw crowds of around 300 spectators.

During the reconstruction of Wembley stadium the Challenge Cup final was played at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and one year a reported 15,000 tickets were sold in Wales.

Media

There are two weekly rugby league newspapers Rugby League Express and League Weekly and two monthly magazines, Rugby League World and Thirteen Magazine. These cover the sport world-wide and across the UK. As most British rugby league takes place in the North of England, the coverage tends to reflect this. These publications are usually only available by subscription in Wales though League Express can be bought in some areas.

BBC Sport programmes such as the Super League Show and Rugby League Raw are not broadcast in Wales despite the BBC owning the rights to do so. The Super League Show can, however, be viewed over the internet anywhere in the UK. Highlights of Celtic Crusaders games are shown on the rugby union programme ScrumV. The BBC covers the Challenge Cup from the rounds in which the top clubs enter.

BBC Radio Five Live and BBC Five Live Sports Extra carry commentary from a selection of Super League matches each week,.

Sky has the rights to show live Super League games; one or two live matches are broadcast often fronted by Mike Stephenson and Eddie Hemmings. Sky also hold the rights to show the Rugby League Tri-Nations live, whilst highlights are shown on BBC Sport. Australia's National Rugby League and State of Origin were shown until 2005-06 season when Setanta Sports outbid Sky for the rights.

Manchester based Channel M show some National League and amateur rugby on their Code XIII programme.

The national team

Main article: Wales national rugby league team

The national side, nicknamed the Dragons, have often been one of the stronger sides in international rugby league and have also provided a number of players for the Great Britain team. The two great eras of Welsh Rugby League coincide with the playing careers of Jim Sullivan, Jonathan Davies and John Devereux. They compete in the Rugby League European Nations Cup and the Rugby League World Cup kicking off their current campaign with a match against Scotland at Celtic Crusaders' Brewery Field on October 29 2006.

There is a very successful Wales A team selected from domestic Welsh players, which competes in the Amateur Four Nations competition. Wales have only ever lost two matches in this tournament and have won the title in all four years of its existence.

Wales also play in regular international tournaments at under 19, under 15 and student level.

See also

• Sport in the United Kingdom
• Cardiff Demons
• Celtic Crusaders
• Rugby union in Wales

External links

• Wales Rugby League
• WRL official photographer
• First RL International
• Wales History