Bridgend Ravens

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Bridgend Ravens

Nickname(s)	Ravens, The Bridge
Founded	1878[1]
Location	Bridgend, Wales
Ground(s)	Brewery Field
Capacity	12,000
Chairman	Derrick King
Coach(es)	Gareth Nicholas
Captain(s)	Matthew Davies
League(s)	WRU Division One West
2008-2009	14th (Welsh Premier Division)[2]
1st kit 2nd kit
Official website
http://www.bridgendravens.co.uk

Bridgend Ravens are a semi-professional rugby union club based in Bridgend, South Wales. The original Bridgend side, Bridgend RFC, were merged with Pontypridd RFC for the 2003-2004 season to become one of five Welsh regions in the recently restructured Celtic League. The resulting club, the Celtic Warriors, had a relatively successful first season on the field, finishing fourth in the league, however, poor crowd attendances and a debt of £300,000 led to the WRU buying the club out and disbanding them at the end of the season. Bridgend RFC continued as a semi-professional club playing in the Welsh Premiership, which they had won for the first time the season prior to their merger with Pontypridd RFC.

The name Bridgend RFC is owned by the former owner of the Celtic Warriors, Leighton Samuel. In order to concentrate on the Celtic Warriors, Samuel decided to withdraw his financial backing of Bridgend RFC.^[3] Fans and businessmen of the area resurrected the team, naming it Bridgend Ravens. The name comes from the nickname of the former Bridgend RFC club, who were known as the Ravens. Until the 2008-09 season, Bridgend Ravens played in the Welsh Principality Premiership. However, the club finished bottom of the league and were relegated to the WRU Division One West for the start of the 2009-10 season. The club play their matches at the Brewery Field that they now jointly own with Bridgend Town F.C..

Contents 1 Current Squad 2 Management Team, Coaches and other staff 3 Season Results 3.1 Bridgend Ravens 3.2 Bridgend RFC 3.3 Celtic Warriors 4 Notable Former Players 5 Games played against international opposition 6 Links 7 References

[edit] Current Squad

Nat. Position Player PR Lee Manning PR Rowan Davies PR Owen Cotton PR Craig Hopkins PR Owen Williams HK Rhys Blumberg HK Rhys Hewitt HK Adrian Chiffi LK Jon Campbell LK Loyd Peers LK Kyle Coulter FL Ewan Hopkins FL Luke Probert FL Matthew Davies (Captain)

Nat. Position Player FL Bill Carey N8 Phil Wheeler N8 Dave Smith Ireland SH Alan Purcell SH Llyr Lane SH Lloyd O'Connor FH Tom Hancock FH Mark David CE Gareth Howells CE Mike Davies CE Matthew Davies WG Tom Daly WG Liam Powell WG Grant Epton

[edit] Management Team, Coaches and other staff

• Head Coach - Gareth Nicholas
• Backs Coach - Craig Warlow
• Forwards Coach - to be confirmed
• Team Manager - Norman Spain
• Conditioning Coach - to be confirmed
• Assistant Coach - to be confirmed
• Physiotherapist - John Rose
• Assistant Physiotherapist - Gareth Davies
• Medical Trainer - Richard Evans
• Kit Master - Kelvin Newton
• Director of Rugby - to be confirmed
• President - J.P.R. Williams
• Chairman - Derrick King
• Director - David Rees
• Club Secretary - David Rees
• Business Advisor - John Dalton
• Business Advisor - Peter Woods
• Marketing Advisor - John Mitchell

[edit] Season Results

[edit] Bridgend Ravens

• 2008/2009 - 14th (of 14) Principality Welsh Premiership; Round 5 of Swalec Cup (knocked out by Newport RFC 44-7)
• 2007/2008 - 12th (of 14) Principality Welsh Premiership; Quarter-final of Konica Minolta Cup (knocked out by Pontypridd RFC 41-11)
• 2006/2007 - 11th (of 14) Principality Welsh Premiership; Semi-final of Konica Minolta Cup (knocked out by Cardiff RFC 23-16)
• 2005/2006 - 2nd (of 14) Principality Welsh Premiership; Round four of Konica Minolta Cup (knocked out by Neath RFC 11-3)
• 2004/2005 - 3rd (of 17) WRU National League; Semi-final of Konica Minolta Cup (Knocked out by Llanelli RFC 20-10)
• 2003/2004 - 7th (of 16) WRU National League; Semi-final of Konica Minolta Cup (Knocked out by Neath RFC 29 - 14)

[edit] Bridgend RFC

• 2002/2003 - 1st (of 9) in WRU National League; 7th (of 8) in Pool B of Celtic League; Semi-Final of Principality Cup (Lost to Newport 27-23)
• 2001/2002 - 9th (of 11) in Welsh/Scottish League; 6th (of 8) in Pool A of Celtic League; Quarter-Final of Principality Cup (Lost to Llanelli 46-24)
• 2000/2001 - 5th (of 11) in Welsh/Scottish League; Quarter Final of Principality Cup (Lost to Neath 23-21)
• 1999/2000 - 9th (of 11) in Welsh/Scottish League
• 1998/1999 - 6th (of 8) in WRU National League
• 1997/1998 - 7th (of 8) in WRU National League
• 1996/1997 - 8th (of 12) in WRU National League
• 1995/1996 - 5th (of 12) in Heineken League
• 1994/1995 - 5th (of 12) in Heineken League
• 1993/1994 - 6th (of 12) in Heineken League
• 1992/1993 - 6th (of 12) in Heineken League
• 1991/1992 - 4th (of 10) in Heineken League

[edit] Celtic Warriors

• 2003/2004 - Celtic Warriors 4th (of 12) in Celtic League

[edit] Notable Former Players

Note: The following players play(ed) for Bridgend RFC or Bridgend Ravens. For Celtic Warriors players, please see the Celtic Warriors article.

See also Category:Bridgend RFC players

Andrew Bishop John Devereux Steve Fenwick Mike Griffiths Benjamin "Ben" Gronow Michael Hall Aisea Havili Chris Horsman Robert Howley Fred Hutchinson Dafydd James

Adam M. Jones Deiniol Jones Ryan Jones John Lloyd Christian Loader Maama Molitika Jamie Ringer Oriol Ripol Peter Rogers Ian Stephens John Thiel

Gareth Rowlands Gareth Thomas Rhys Webb Glen Webbe Gareth John Williams Gareth Powell Williams Gareth Prothero Nathan Thomas J.J. Williams J.P.R. Williams Jeff Young

[edit] Games played against international opposition

Year	Date	Opponent	Result	Score	Tour
1978	December 13	New Zealand	Loss	6-17	1978 New Zealand rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland
1981	October 28	Australia	Win	12-9	1981-82 Australia rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland
1997	November 9	Tonga	Loss	18-21	1997 Tonga rugby union tour of Britain[4]

[edit] Links

• Official Site
• Premiership Fixtures from the BBC
• Premiership Results from the BBC
• Premiership Table from the BBC
• Unofficial Site

[edit] References

• Newport RFC Archive Results
• Magners League Archive Results

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