Rugby union in Wales is considered a large part of the culture of Wales. Wales has the largest proportion of rugby union supporters in Europe with 44% of the people liking the sport, making it the most popular sport in Wales.
Rugby union is thought to have reached Wales in the 1850s, with the national body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) being formed in 1881.Fields of Praise, The Official History of the Welsh Rugby Union 1881-1981, David Smith, Gareth Williams (1980) pp41 Wales are considered to be one of the most successful national sides in Rugby Union, having won the most Six Nations Championships after England, as well as having reached 3 World Cup semi finals in 1987, 2011 and 2019, having finished 3rd in the inaugural competition and having finished 4th in 2011 in a repeat of the first third place play-off. The Welsh team of the 1970s is considered to be one of the greatest national teams of all time. As of February 2025, they are ranked 12th in the world.
The Wales national team play at the WRU-owned Principality Stadium, and compete annually in the Six Nations Championship, as well as having competed at every Rugby World Cup. Wales are ranked as a tier-1 nation by World Rugby. Wales also competes as one of the 15 "core teams" in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series, and won the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
The main domestic competition in Wales is the United Rugby Championship (formerly called Pro 14, and before that the Celtic League). Four regional sides (Ospreys, Cardiff, Scarlets, and Dragons) represent Wales in the competition, which also includes sides from Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and South Africa. The regional sides also compete in the Europe-wide European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup.
Beneath the URC, club rugby is represented by over 200 WRU affiliated clubs who play in the Welsh Premier Division and the lower Welsh Divisional leagues. Prominent clubs include Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Llanelli, Bridgend, Neath, Pontypool, Pontypridd, and England-based London Welsh.
As of February 2019 the Welsh Rugby Union are reviewing the number of regions, with potential consolidation for funding two or three super teams.
History Rugby-like sports and early rugby in Wales
Rugby-like games have a long history in Wales, and the first written record of such sports in Great Britain is found in 9th century Wales.Smith (1980), pg18. The Historia Brittonum is credited to the Welsh monk Nennius and features descriptions of such team ball-games that suggest they were well understood in early medieval Wales and that there was a popular belief that these were ancient games, played since at least Romano-British times.
Descriptions of unnamed ball-games are found in Medieval Welsh literature, Welsh poetry, Welsh mythology and Arthurian literature and these games were the antecedents to the medieval football games and traditional Welsh sports played throughout the country in later centuries. In the early seventeenth century, George Owen of Henllys stated that one of these sports Cnapan, had indeed been designed to improve both the strength and stamina of its players as a form of war training for the ancient Britons. Cnapan was markedly similar to the game codified by English Public Schools in the 19th century. The sport featured ball-handling, backward passing, and "scrummages" between the "sturdy gamesmen" who would have been the equivalent of the pack of forwards in modern rugby and a restart approximating a lineout in Rugby Union. However, the increase in popularity of Rugby Union across Wales saw interest in these ancient sports gradually decline.Smith (1980), pg18.
The introduction of Rugby football into Wales is credited to the Reverend Professor Rowland Williams who brought the game to St. David's College, Lampeter from his time at Cambridge University and the College fielded Wales' first "rugby team" in 1850.Smith (1980), pg22.
Rugby union initially expanded in Wales through ex-pupils of the Welsh colleges settling, or students from English colleges and universities returning to the larger industrial hubs of South Wales. This is reflected in the first clubs to embrace the sport in the early to mid-1870s, with Neath RFC widely recognised as the first Welsh Rugby Club. The strength of Welsh rugby union developed over the following years, which could be attributed to the 'big four' South Wales clubs of Newport (who lost only seven games under the captaincy of Llewellyn Lloyd between the 1900/01 and 1902/03 seasonsThomas, Wayne 'A Century of Welsh Rugby Players, 1880-1980'; Ansells Ltd. (1979)), Cardiff, Llanelli (who lost just twice in 1894 and 1895) and Swansea. With the coming of industrialisation and the railways, rugby union too was spread as workers from the main cities brought the game to the new steel and coal towns of South Wales. Merthyr formed in 1876, Brecon in 1874, Penygraig in 1877; as the towns adopted the new sport they reflected the growth and expansion of a new industrial Wales.Smith (1980), pg11.
The South Wales Football Club was established in 1875Smith (1980), pg14. to try to incorporate a standard set of rules and expand the sport and this was succeeded by the Welsh Rugby Union which was formed in 1881.Smith (1980), pg41. With the forming of the WFU (which would become the Welsh Rugby Union in 1934), Wales began competing in recognised international matches, with the first game, against England, also in 1881.Smith (1980), pg40. The first Welsh team although fairly diverse in the geography of the clubs represented, did not appear to truly represent the strength available to Wales. The team was mainly made up of ex-Cambridge and Oxford university graduates and the selection was heavily criticised in the local press after the crushing defeat by England.
1880s and 1890s In the 19th century as well as the established clubs there were many 'scratch' teams populating most towns, informal pub or social teams that would form and disband quickly. Llanelli, as an example, in the 1880s was home not only to Llanelli RFC, but also to Gower Road, Seasiders, Morfa Rangers, Prospect Place Rovers, Wern Foundry, Cooper Mills Rangers, New Dock Strollers, Vauxhall Juniors, Moonlight Rovers and Gilbert Street Rovers.Smith (1980), pg11-12. These teams would come and go, but some would merge into more settled clubs which exist today, Cardiff RFC was itself formed from three teams, Glamorgan, Tredegarville and Wanderers Football Clubs.
By the 1890s Rugby Union had become "the obsession of the working class" with crowds of 30-40,000 travelling great distances to attend matches facilitated by increased press coverage and new infrastructure. Wales won the 1893 Home Nations Championship for the first time, also winning their first Triple Crown (for defeating England, Scotland and Ireland). The decade also saw the emergence of the first super-stars of Welsh rugby, players such as Arthur Gould, Billy Bancroft and Gwyn Nicholls would usher in not only the first golden era of Welsh rugby union, but would also see the introduction of specialised positional players.
The first golden era 1900-1911
The first 'Golden Era' of Welsh rugby is so called due to the success achieved by the national team during the early 20th century. Wales had already won the Triple Crown in 1893, but between 1900 and 1914 the team would win the trophy on six occasions, and with France joining the tournament (unofficially in 1908 and 1909) three Grand Slams.Smith (1980), pg481.
With the introduction of specialised players like hooker George Travers,Thomas (1979), pg40. the WFU could no longer choose the 'best players' to represent Wales, they needed to think tactically and choose people who could do a specific job on the pitch. This period of Welsh rugby would see the grip of the 'Big Four' clubs providing the bulk of national players, slip slightly. The WFU still tended to turn to the likes of Swansea and Newport to supply the skillful back players and usually kept club half-back pairings together such as Jones and Owen of Swansea. But it was the introduction of the 'Rhondda Forward' which saw men who worked day in day out in the coal, iron and tin mines enter the Welsh front row. Chosen for their strength and aggressive tackling, players such as Dai 'Tarw' Jones from Treherbert and Dai Evans from Penygraig added muscle to the front row.
Although a progressive time for international rugby, this period initially saw regression for many of the club sides in the form of the temperance movement. In the early 1900s, rugby was seen as a wicked temptation to the young men of the mining and steel communities, leading to violence and drink,Smith (1980), pg120. and the valley areas in particular were part of a strong Nonconformist Baptist movement. The religious revival saw some communities completely reject rugby and local clubs, like Senghenydd, disbanded for several years. It wasn't until the 1910s that the social view of rugby would change the other way, fostered by mine owners as a great social unifier;Smith (1980), pg121. and like baseball in America would be portrayed as a '...source of community integration because it installed civic pride'.Morgan (1988), pg391.
Unlike the game in England, rugby union in Wales was never seen as a sport for gentlemen of higher learning. Although this was fostered in the first international Welsh team, the fast absorption of the sport into the working class areas appeared to sever the link of rugby as a sport for the middle and upper classes.Smith (1980), pg195.
As rugby became linked with the hard working men of the industrialised areas of Wales, it should also be noted that the sport did not escape the hardships of the industries. In 1913 five members of the Senghenydd team were killed in Britain's worst colliery disaster and many more lost their lives in the 'slow drip' of deaths caused by the industries. Far worse was to follow during the conflict of World War I when many teams lost members, including Welsh internationals like Charlie PritchardThomas (1979), pg43. and Johnny Williams.
Turmoil of the 1920s The 1920s were a difficult time for Welsh rugby. The first golden period was over and the players that made up the teams that won four Triple Crowns had already disbanded before the Great War. The war could not be blamed for the downturn in Welsh fortunes as all the home nations lost their young talent in equal numbers. The fact that so many of Wales' talented stars had retired from rugby before 1910 was felt when Wales failed to win the tournament in the few years leading up to the war. But the main reason for Welsh failure on the rugby pitch can be mapped to an economic failures of Wales as a country. The First World War had created an unrealistic demand for coal, and in the 1920s the collapse in the need for coal resulted in a massive level of unemployment throughout the south Wales valleys.Smith (1980), pg224. This in turn led to mass emigration as people left Wales for work. The knock-on effect was felt in the port cities of Newport and Cardiff, that relied on the transportation of coal.
Suddenly the call of the professional league was a very strong draw to men who could not claim money for playing union. Between 1919 and 1939, Forty-eight capped Welsh rugby union players joined league rugby.Smith (1980), pg225. The fact that the equivalent of three full national squads left the sport can only allude to the number of trialists and club members that also left the sport. Exceptional players lost to the league game included Jim Sullivan of Cardiff, William Absalom of Abercarn and Emlyn Jenkins of Treorchy.