London Welsh RFC

This article is about the rugby club at Old Deer Park, Richmond. For the London Welsh Centre (Y Canolfan) at Gray's Inn Road, see London Welsh Centre.

London Welsh

Full name	London Welsh Rugby Football Club/Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain
Founded	1885
Location	London, England
Ground(s)	Old Deer Park (Capacity: 5,850)
Coach(es)	Lyn Jones
Captain(s)	Jonathan Mills
League(s)	The Championship
2010–11	4th (Semi-finals)
Team kit
Official website
www.london-welsh.co.uk

London Welsh Rugby Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) are a rugby union club based in London that currently plays in The Championship, the second level of the English rugby union league system (below the Aviva Premiership).

Club history

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

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. All proceeds were donated to the Welsh Guards Afghanistan Appeal.

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 in amateur times): captain John Dawes (now London Welsh president), JPR Williams, Gerald Davies, Mervyn Davies, John Taylor (now Managing Director and ITV commentator), Mike Roberts and Geoff Evans.

Currently the 1st XV squad are fully professional, and hopes are high that this will lead to a sustained challenge for promotion to the Premiership. Head Coach Lyn Jones and Captain Jonathan Mills have all been brought in to continue the club ethos and have more professional mindset on the pitch.

Despite the new professionalism, London Welsh has tried to retain the atmosphere of an amateur club. Although the 1XV squad are fully professional, the new London Welsh Amateurs, Wizards and Occies are still strong parts of the club. They also have a successful social section, who go 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 2005/6 season. Whilst 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.

In December 2006, London Welsh revealed their ambition to turn their back on the English league and become the 5th Welsh team in the Magners 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 Guinness 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. 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. 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." 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.

Current Standings

2011-12 RFU Championship Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Bonus Points	Points
1	Bristol	16	13	0	3	417	296	121	8	60
2	Bedford Blues	16	10	1	5	475	354	121	11	53
3	London Welsh	16	9	2	5	383	293	90	9	49
4	Cornish Pirates	16	8	3	5	448	356	92	10	48
5	Rotherham Titans	16	9	1	6	377	294	83	8	46
6	Leeds Carnegie	16	10	1	5	315	354	-39	2	44
7	Nottingham	16	8	2	6	443	349	94	7	43
8	Doncaster Knights	16	7	2	7	325	344	-19	7	39
9	Moseley	16	5	1	10	328	445	-117	5	27
10	London Scottish	16	4	0	12	334	409	-75	9	25
11	Plymouth Albion	16	5	0	11	264	387	-123	2	22
12	Esher	16	1	1	14	226	454	-228	2	8
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams 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 are relegation play-off places.

Current squad

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

Player Position Union Dan George Hooker Wales Viliami Ma'asi Hooker Tonga Saul Nelson Hooker Wales Shawn Pittman Prop United States Guillermo Roan Prop Argentina Tom French Prop England Greg Bateman Prop England James Tideswell Prop England Adam Brown Lock Wales Matt Corker Lock England Gary Johnson Lock England Mike Powell Lock Wales Martin Purdy Lock England Mike Denbee Flanker Ireland Michael Hills Flanker England Jonathan Mills (c) Flanker Wales Ben Russell Flanker England

Player Position Union Lee Beach Number 8 Wales Ed Jackson Number 8 England Robert Lewis Scrum-half Wales Ben Stevenson Scrum-half England Seb Jewell Fly-half England Gordon Ross Fly-half Scotland James Lewis Centre Wales Paul Mackey Centre Wales Hudson Tonga'uiha Centre Tonga Simon Whatling Centre England Liam Gibson Wing England Gerard Mullen Wing Ireland Joe Ajuwa Wing Nigeria Marland Yarde Wing England Will Hurrell Wing England Edd Thrower Fullback England

Notable former players

British and Irish Lions

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

Robert Ackerman 1983 Gerald Davies 1971 Mervyn Davies 1971 John Dawes 1971 Geoff Evans 1971 Vivian Jenkins 1938 Tommy Jones-Davies 1930 Alun Lewis 1977

Douglas Marsden-Jones 1924 Teddy Morgan 1904 Billy Raybould 1968 Clive Rees 1974 Mike Roberts 1971 John Taylor 1968,1971 J.P.R. Williams 1971,1974 Jack Williams 1908

Wales International Captains

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

See also Wales rugby union captains

• Teddy Morgan 1908
• Wick Powell 1927
• John Dawes 1968-71

Other notable former players

See also Category:London Welsh RFC players

Norman Biggs Kevin Bowring Ronnie Boon Colin Charvis Rhys Gabe Arthur "Monkey" Gould Bob Gould Tony Gray

James Hannan Arthur 'Boxer' Harding Keith Jarrett Arthur Lewis Bryn Meredith Wick Powell JEC 'Birdie' Partridge

Reg Plummer Tommy Rees Tom Shanklin Haydn Tanner Watcyn Thomas Harry Uzzell Jeff Young

London Welsh F.C.

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

See also

• London Scottish
• London Irish
• Rugby union in London

External links

• Official site
• Occies site
• Women's site

Bibliography

• Jones, Stephen; Paul Beken (1985). Dragon in Exile, The Centenary History of London Welsh R.F.C.. London: Springwood Books. ISBN 0862541255.