Thirty years ago today, the development of local rugby league players in South Wales took a big step forward when Hull Kingston Rovers came to Port Talbot.
For just the one season, we had South Wales RLFC, coached by Clive Griffiths and managed by Mike Nicholas, were playing in the newly named “Super League Division Two”. This was the division that was more recently known as “League 1”.
And yes, Hull KR, last year’s men’s treble winners, were playing at that level at that time, and whilst South Wales RLFC were defeated that day, they went on to finish sixth out of 12, including a home and away double win over Leigh (yes, that same club that’s in Super League now).
The development of players in a professional environment was needed. For 100 years, Welsh rugby stars had been “going north” to legitimately earn money for playing rugby. Up until August 1995, earning money for playing rugby union was illegal, but after that date, the sport became openly professional.
The Welsh Rugby League side now needed a new source for players, and the only way was to develop our own. Before 1996, there had been “amateur” and student sides in Wales, but few of those players went on to play the professional game. So, South Wales RLFC was formed, with current WRL president Mike Nicholas and current WRL head of development Clive Griffiths being two of the instigators behind it.
The idea was that if we had a good season, then we had a chance of being elevated straight up to the highest level of the game, Super League itself. Clubs had been placed in London and Paris, so Cardiff was the obvious next choice. An investor was ready, some signings lined up, including a player from Canberra Raiders. The organisers at Super League were in favour of it, all that was needed was the current Super League clubs to agree to extend, admit a Welsh club, and really help the development of rugby league in Wales and the international game as a whole.
I think we all know what happened in that vote.
South Wales RLFC couldn’t continue in the same format they’d been running, so that side was wound up, but the development continued. One of the owners at the Cardiff Devils ice hockey side, who was reportedly involved in the Super League bid wasn’t giving up so easily, so he helped to form Cardiff Demons RLFC (Demons/Devils, get it?) to play in the Rugby Football League’s academy league. There was due to be another review in a couple of years for a new Super League club, but unfortunately, that was given to Gateshead Thunder.
The backer pulled out, but the development continued. Cardiff played in the Challenge Cup in 1999-2000 and a year later, entered the Rugby League Conference. More Welsh clubs joined in 2003 to form our own league, and then in 2006, Celtic Crusaders were formed. For the first two years, Crusaders played in National League Two, the same level as South Wales RLFC, but earned promotion for 2008.
Because of that, there was more money for youth development. Crusaders formed U16 and U18 sides, whilst a number of the community clubs formed sides at U13, 15 and 17 levels. The first WRL organised Junior Grand Final to be played was the U15s, and it was with some justification that Cardiff Demons were the first winners, beating NPT Steelers 16-14. Whilst they were runners-up that day, Steelers’ Courtney Davies eventually became a Welsh international. The system was working.
Since then, we’ve had no less than 64 junior Grand Finals, and our development pathways have given thousands of players the chance to take to the field, over 2,000 juniors last year alone, with over a thousand already signed up (to date) for the new season that starts in May. More will follow.
The junior leagues have been breeding grounds for many Super League players and Welsh internationals, including Lloyd White, Elliot Kear, Gil Dudson, Ben Flower and Regan Grace, the latter a try-scoring winner in an U14 Final in 2011.
All this has been a chain reaction from that South Wales v Hull Kingston Rovers match 30 years ago today.
See what Clive Griffiths has to say about it here.
