Llanhilleth Rugby Football Club is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

team from the village of

Llanhilleth Llanhilleth () is a village, community and an electoral ward on the A467 road between Ebbw Vale and Crumlin in Blaenau Gwent, Wales. Two large mounds in the field behind the Carpenter's Arms are the remains of the medieval Llanhilleth castle w ...

Blaenau Gwent Blaenau Gwent (; ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders the unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw ...

, Wales. The club is a member of the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; cy, Undeb Rygbi Cymru) is the Sports governing body, governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running ...

and is a

feeder club In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

for the

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

Early history

Although rugby was known to have been played in Llanhilleth before the 1890s it is generally accepted that the team that would become Llanhilleth RFC first played club rugby in 1894. This team was called the Grasshoppers and was formed by members of the local

male voice choir A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...

. After the First World War the club played under the name 'The All Blacks' and achieved some local success including winning the Cyrus Davies Cup on two occasions. Like most Welsh clubs, Llanhilleth disbanded during the Second World War but reformed under its present name on April 4, 1946, and that season won the Cyrus Davies Cup for a third time.

Club colours

The club presently play in light blue and dark Blue, a strip that was chosen by accident after World War II. With rationing still in force the club asked residents to donate clothing rations to buy a new kit for the team. With enough rations collected team residents travelled to

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

to buy a new strip, but when they arrived at the Welsh Sports shop in the capital there was only one full rugby jersey kit available, a

Cardiff RFC Cardiff Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Caerdydd) is a rugby union club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876Parry-Jones (1989), pg 59 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, shortly after ...

kit that had not been collected. The kit was bought and similar to

Llanharan RFC Llanharan Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Llanharan, South Wales. Llanharan RFC was formally established in 1891-92 when Llanharan was little more than an agricultural hamlet. The earliest photograph on the clubhouse wall is date ...

the team now wear Black and Blue, the colours of Cardiff.

Club honours

* 1994-95 Welsh League Division 8B East - Champions

References

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External links

Llanhilleth RFC
Rugby clubs established in 1894 Rugby union teams in Wales 1894 establishments in Wales Sport in Blaenau Gwent