London Welsh RFC

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This article is about the rugby club located in Richmond-upon-Thames. For the London Welsh Centre (Y Canolfan) at Gray's Inn Road, see London Welsh Centre.
London Welsh
London welsh badge.png
Full name London Welsh Rugby Football Club
Nickname(s) Exiles, Dragons
Founded 1885; 139 years ago (1885)
Location Richmond-upon-Thames, England
Ground(s) Old Deer Park (Capacity: 5,850 (1,000 seats))
Coach(es) Rowland Phillips
League(s) 2015–16 RFU Championship
2014–15 12th (relegated from the English Premiership
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.london-welsh.co.uk

London Welsh Rugby Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) is a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2014–15 season, after gaining promotion from the RFU Championship in the 2014 play-off final. After one season in the top division, during which they played their home matches at Kassam Stadium, Oxford, they were relegated to the RFU Championship.

Affiliated teams

Despite professionalism, London Welsh has tried to retain the atmosphere of an amateur club. The first-XV squad are fully professional, and they are complemented with the London Welsh Amateurs, Wizards and Occies are still strong parts of the club. They also have a successful social section, which goes a long way towards maintaining the 'amateur ethos' of enjoying a game and a pint on a Saturday.

London Welsh has one of the longest standing women's sides – LWWRFC, who celebrated twenty years of women's rugby at the club in the 2005–06 season. While still being amateur, the women train hard and have enjoyed recent success with the club, both in XVs in the winter and 7s during the summer. There are London Welsh Women representatives at England Regional Level and on the Wales National Touch team. There is also a popular mini & junior section.

Club history

London Welsh, established by and for London's Welsh community, has played senior-level rugby in England since its formation in 1885.[1] Its name in Welsh, is Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain.

Over the years the club has contributed 177 players to the Wales national team and 43 players to the British and Irish Lions. Seven London Welsh players were selected for the 1971 tour to New Zealand (a Lions record which remains unbroken to this day): captain John Dawes (now London Welsh president), JPR Williams, Gerald Davies, Mervyn Davies, John Taylor (now Managing Director[2] and ITV commentator), Mike Roberts and Geoff Evans.

In December 2006, London Welsh revealed their ambition to leave the English league and become the fifth Welsh team in the Celtic League. The club later appeared to go back on this report, claiming they had been misquoted and said this would only be considered if the English Premiership decided to prohibit promotion/relegation, but confirmed their hopes of ground-sharing with Brentford FC either at their current stadium Griffin Park or a new 20,000 seat ground to be built at Lionel Road, near Kew Bridge.

In June 2009, the club went into administration shortly after turning professional.[3] They were bought from the receivers in July 2009 by Saudex Global, owned by Neil Hollinshead, and allowed to continue in The Championship, albeit with a five-point deduction.[4][5] According to the BBC in March 2011, court documents show that Hollinshead is "alleged to have submitted forged documents and fake bank account details in order to continue his control of London Welsh and that he repeatedly lied to ensure that ownership of London Welsh was transferred over to him."[5] The former shareholders of London Welsh RFC rescinded the 2009 agreement, by which they sold the shares of the club to Hollinshead, and had regained control by January 2010.[5]

2010 – present

The 2010–11 season was the club's 125th anniversary and to kick off the celebrations they held a military tattoo on the evening of Wednesday 25 August at Old Deer Park with the Band and Corps of Drums of the Welsh Guards, plus the London Welsh Rugby Club Choir.

On 1 June 2012, it was revealed that Crystal Palace co-chairman Steve Parish had approached senior figures at the club about a possible ground-share at Selhurst Park, as the clubs plans to play their matches at Kassam Stadium were deemed unsuitable by the RFU, after securing promotion to the English Premiership.[6] However a legal appeal by the club against the RFU's actions was upheld on 28 June 2012, after the appeal panel ruled that the criteria were in breach of EU and UK competition laws. Promotion was ultimately secured when it was announced that Newcastle Falcons, the club facing relegation from the Premiership, would not appeal against the ruling.[7]

In the 2013 season London Welsh caused controversy by fielding an ineligible player (Tyson Keats) in nine league matches during the season, eventually receiving a 5-point deduction and £10,000 fine.[8]

On 14 April 2013, London Welsh were relegated from the English Premiership in their first season (pending the winners of the RFU Championship meeting the Premiership entry requirements) after a 14–31 defeat at home to Northampton Saints.

On 4 June 2014, London Welsh won promotion to the English Premiership, defeating Bristol Rugby 27–8 at home and 21–20 away, 48–28 on aggregate.[9] However, the club endured a difficult season back in the English top-flight, and suffered defeat in all of their 22 league fixtures of the regular season, claiming only 1 bonus point throughout the entire campaign. The team therefore finished bottom and was relegated to the RFU Championship for the 2015–16 season. The team was also defeated in every single European Challenge Cup game, as well as every single Anglo-Welsh cup game. As a result, they became the first top-flight English side to suffer defeat in every single competitive match over a season, for over 10 years. The club also returned to Old Deer Park at the end of the season

Current standings

2015–16 RFU Championship Table watch · edit · discuss
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Points diff Try bonus Loss bonus Points
1 Bristol Rugby (CH) 22 20 0 2 718 397 321 14 1 95
2 Doncaster Knights (RU) 22 15 2 5 588 470 118 10 5 79
3 Yorkshire Carnegie (SF) 22 14 0 8 655 466 189 15 7 78
4 Bedford Blues (SF) 22 12 0 10 623 599 24 10 6 64
5 London Welsh 22 11 1 10 442 528 –86 9 3 58
6 Jersey 22 11 1 10 465 466 –1 5 6 57
7 Nottingham Rugby 22 10 0 12 494 483 11 9 7 56
8 London Scottish 22 10 0 12 463 453 10 2 7 49
9 Cornish Pirates 22 8 1 13 530 570 –40 8 7 49
10 Rotherham Titans 22 8 0 14 454 621 –167 3 3 38
11 Ealing Trailfinders 22 6 1 15 523 605 –82 5 6 37
12 Moseley (R) 22 4 0 18 416 715 –-299 6 4 26
  • If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Number of matches won
  2. Difference between points for and against
  3. Total number of points for
  4. Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
  5. Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background are promotion play-off places. Pink background is the relegation place.
Updated: 13 May 2016
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Club honours

Merit Table Rugby

Sunday Telegraph Pennants

  • English-Welsh champions 1967–68, 1970–71

runner-up 1965–66 third 1971–72[11]

  • English champions 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1977–78, 1978–79,

runner-up 1965–66, 1971–72 third 1972–73[12]

  • Welsh champions 1970–71, 1971–72

third 1965–66[13]

Western Mail

  • Welsh Championship champions 1972–73

runner-up 1967–68, 1971–72[14]

Daily Mail

  • Anglo-Welsh third 1978–79[15]

Whitbread

  • Welsh Merit Table champions 1971–72[16]
Promotions
  • National Division 4 – runner-up, 1995–6 (Fourth tier of English rugby) [17]
  • Jewson National League 1 – 3rd, 1997–98 (Third tier of English rugby)[18]
  • Lowest league position 6th 1993–4 Courage League Division 5 South (5th tier)[19]
  • Highest league position 12th Aviva Premiership 2012–13 (1st tier) [20]

Current squad

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For player movements leading up to the 2016–17 season, see List of 2016–17 RFU Championship transfers § London Welsh.

2015–16 Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union
Harry Allen Hooker England England
Koree Britton Hooker England England
Nathan Morris Hooker England England
Eddie Aholelei Prop Tonga Tonga
Ben Cooper Prop England England
Jack Gilding Prop England England
Darryl Marfo Prop England England
Ricky Reeves Prop England England
Nathan Trevett Prop Wales Wales
Matt Corker Lock England England
Daniel Leo Lock Samoa Samoa
Josh McNally Lock England England
Brendon Snyman Lock South Africa South Africa
Ben West Lock England England
Ryan Hodson Flanker Australia Australia
Gus Jones Flanker England England
Jesse Liston Flanker England England
Will Skuse Flanker England England
Richard Thorpe Flanker Canada Canada
Darren Waters Flanker Wales Wales
Kieran Murphy Number 8 Wales Wales
Ben Pienaar Number 8 South Africa South Africa
Player Position Union
Josh Davies Scrum-half Wales Wales
Ryan Glynn Scrum-half England England
Rob Lewis Scrum-half Wales Wales
Olly Barkley Fly-half England England
Joe Carlisle Fly-half England England
Will Robinson Fly-half England England
Guy Armitage Centre England England
James Lewis Centre Wales Wales
Thretton Palamo Centre United States United States
Nic Reynolds Centre Wales Wales
Alan Awcock Wing England England
Josh Drauniniu Wing England England
Chris Elder Wing England England
Seb Jewell Fullback Wales Wales
Martyn Thomas Fullback Wales Wales

Notable former players

British and Irish Lions

The following former players were selected for the British and Irish Lions touring squads while playing for London Welsh.

   

Wales International Captains

The following former players captained the Wales national rugby union team while playing for London Welsh.

See also Wales rugby union captains

Other notable former players

See also Category:London Welsh RFC players
     

London Welsh Football Club

The club set up an association football side in 1890 called London Welsh FC. They disbanded after a couple of seasons.

See also

Bibliography

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References

  1. ↑ Jones (1985), pg 3.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/22084245
  10. ↑ http://www.hampshirerugby.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=806&Itemid=455
  11. ↑ Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C, Stephen Jones and Paul Beken, Springwood Books, London, 1985
  12. ↑ Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C, Stephen Jones and Paul Beken, Springwood Books, London, 1985
  13. ↑ Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C, Stephen Jones and Paul Beken, Springwood Books, London, 1985
  14. ↑ Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C, Stephen Jones and Paul Beken, Springwood Books, London, 1985
  15. ↑ Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C, Stephen Jones and Paul Beken, Springwood Books, London, 1985
  16. ↑ Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C, Stephen Jones and Paul Beken, Springwood Books, London, 1985
  17. ↑ http://www.rugbyarchive.net/Pagine/PaginaCompetizioni.aspx?ID=24&Stagione=1995/96
  18. ↑ http://www.moseleyrugby.co.uk/report_display12.php?menitem=104
  19. ↑ http://www.rugbyarchive.net/Pagine/PaginaCompetizioni.aspx?ID=24&Stagione=1993/94
  20. ↑ http://www.rugbyarchive.net/Pagine/Squadre.aspx?ID=163

External links

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