We don’t think one can overstate the popularity of rugby in Wales, the sport is regarded as the national game. There are more than 300 rugby clubs in Wales, and as of 2013, more than 79,000 registered players.
The sport made its way into Wales through the education system. In fact, rugby is named after an English public school where the first rules were codified in the mid 1800s. The Welsh Rugby Union was founded in 1881, and the sport quickly became embraced by working class communities. Neighboring parishes battled each other on the pitch for the honor of bringing home the ball, usually by any means necessary. Early on, the games were seen as a way of turning unruly boys into fine young men (but with over 10,000 girls playing rugby at school today, it would be a mistake to assume it’s a man’s game).
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, rugby was a mania that swept through towns and valleys. Playing it and following one’s favorite rugby team was a way that immigrants from England who had come to Wales to work coal developed attachments to country they now called home. It was more inclusive than the Welsh language, more fun than the church, and it made people feel proud of their country. As an aside, an especially proud moment came in 1905 when a New Zealand team was beaten by gallant little Wales. The New Zealanders had been winning game after game as they bulldozed their way over British Isles teams – until they got to Cardiff, Wales’ capital city. Three on the Welsh team had been born in England, including the captain, Gwyn Nicholls, and this signaled a new Wales: Inclusive and winning.
A few years before New Zealand was bested by Wales, a little agricultural hamlet named Llanharan formed its own rugby club in 1891. The Llanharan Rugby Football Club, now a feeder club for the Cardiff Blues, is remembered by people of a certain age for the horrific plane crash in 1950 that killed 80 people on board including six members of the Llanharan rugby team. At the time, it was the worst crash in the history of civil aviation. The fallen are commemorated with a black cross that appears on the Llanharan crest (seen here). There is another element in this emblem worth noting on a dog-centric website: The dog.
When the Kennel Club officially recognized the Welsh Springer Spaniel in 1902, the first dog on its register was Ch Corrin, a dog who had been bred and whelped at Llanharan House by Colonel Blandy-Jenkins in 1893. The Llanharan strain of Welsh Springer Spaniels was one of the most significant – and successful – kennels of the breed, and its importance to the community is acknowledged by its inclusion in the club logo.
