Although there is comparatively little rugby league played in Wales, the country’s national team has a long history in the sport. Over the years many hundreds of players have "headed 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.
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 and the shock waves where felt in Wales, though the Welsh Rugby Union were less strict in their condemnation of professionalism, and avoided a schism.
Nonetheless, many welsh players signed for English clubs. The Northern Union's administrators began to ponder the possibilities of England versus Wales as rugby league's first ever international. The first attempt met with a lack of public interest, and the first scheduled rugby league international was also became the first postponed rugby league international. It was rescheduled for the 5 April, 1904. The team opposing England was labelled Other Nationalities, but in fact consistent almost entirely of Welshmen, and a few toke Scots. The Although, the team consisted almost entirely of Welsh. The Other Nationalities team defeated England 9 - 3. In 1905, England gained back their credibility with a 21 - 11 win.
Attempts to introduce professional rugby league for Welsh clubs have, to date, all failed. Eleven professional clubs have participated in the Championship from 1907 to 1996. Ebbw Vale was the longest surviving club putting playing from 1907 to 1912. Breifly during the 1908 season, there were sufficient numbers of clubs to run a seperate Welsh section of the league, alongside the Yorkshire and Lancashire Leagues. All other clubs lasted only a solitary season. Despite this, the Welsh have continued to be a breading ground for some of the best rugby league players ever seen.
The first ever rugby league international in which the two teams represented actual nations, with the teams selected by different bodies, was held between Wales and the New Zealand All Golds in 1908. In the real first every rugby league international, the score and outcome was similar, with Wales defeating New Zealand 9-8.
Technically, the governing body for the sport in Wales is the Rugby Football League, whose remit covers the United Kingdom as a whole. In recent years the RFL have established a semi-autonomous section for Wales, the Wales Rugby League.
Domsetically, Welsh rugby league is largely integrated with English competitions. Amatuer Welsh teams form a division in the Rugby League Conference, this division being one of the four "Premier Divisions" of the conference. In 2006 a new professional team, to be known as Celtic Crusaders will enter the Rugby League National Leagues in League Two. This team is in fact a resurrection of the now defunct Celtic Warriors rugby union side.
The Crusaders are the 12th Welsh club to participate in the Northern Union/Rugby Football League. Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale joined for the 1907/8 season, and Aberdare, Barry, Mid-Rhondda, and Treherbert followed 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. They 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 the London Broncos), 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 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.
There are currently 8 rugby league teams in the Welsh division of the Rugby League Conference. Matches between them generally draw crowds of around 300 spectators. Matches for the national team have tended to draw crowds of around 10,000.
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Main article: Wales national rugby league team |
The national side, nicknamed the Dragons, have often been one of the stronger sides in intenational rugby league. Since rugby union went professional, the supply of players moving north has largely ceased, and the team has come to rely more on players of Welsh ancestry. There is Wales A team selected from domestic Welsh players, which competes in the Amateur Four Nations competition.
Wales have also provided a number of players for the Great Britain team.