Club history – The first 85 years
Old Illtydian Rugby club was formed in 1928 and is therefore just 6 years away from celebrating a century of Illtydians rugby! In 1928 the Illtyds Old Boys Rugby Club was formed and as. As the school had been open for only four years, the number of players available was small and with an average age of only seventeen, the club was launched. Its home grounds were many for five years, until finally in 1932 they came to Blackweir where they were to remain for the next thirty years.
A new home ground brought a new name under the captaincy of Terry Donovan, the club were re-christened Old Illtydian RFC. A second fifteen had been formed and the team results in general were outstanding. Thanks to players on leave from the services, young students and schoolboys, the club managed to function for all but two years during the war years, thus in 1945, the continuity was there, and the club continued to expand and flourish. In 1947/48 the club toured Ireland successfully, followed by a tour of Lancashire in 1951. The Illtydians were one of the first Junior Welsh clubs to tour overseas with visits during the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s to exotic places like the Bahamas, Florida, Virginia, Atlanta, San Francisco and Vancouver, all teams proving successful and great ambassadors for Wales. Current Chairman John Manders will have you believe that he went on every trip!
During the season 1952/1953 by which time three teams were playing regularly, the silver jubilee celebrations took place and were celebrated by an outstanding match played against an international team led by Irish Captain Des O’Brien at the Arms Park. There have been some outstanding achievements over the years, for instance, for a period of fifteen years between 1938 and 1953 the first fifteen were undefeated by any other old boys side in Wales or England.
Recognition finally came in 1966 when old Illtydian RFC became a full member of the Welsh Rugby Union followed in 1967 by a move to their own ground and clubhouse at Leckwith. St Illtyds School at this time was based at Sanatorium Road, Leckwith. Although a dream had been realised a period of decline in the fortunes of the club followed. It is difficult to pinpoint the reasons for this as they were varied and complicated, but it was finally decided to sell the club and ground and move to the opposite end of Cardiff to Rumney Recreation Ground. This was done in 1976, and a decisive move this proved to be.
During the 70’ and 80’s and early part of the 90’s the Illtydians were stronger than ever. Four senior teams and two youth fifteens played regularly each week. From 1976 to 1985 the club was based at the 53 Club just off City Road and the numbers of players and supporters packed into this small but homely clubhouse after games was something to see! In 1985 the club moved to a new base at Splott Road, where the club is still based.
Successes have been many over the years with trophies won, promotions achieved, overseas tours, the remarkable win against Ebbw Vale rugby club away in the Welsh cup during the mid 90’s was a great achievement and the development of so many great rugby players
Despite success on the field the cost of maintaining and running a premises dating from the 1870s, coupled with significant changes in the licence trade meant that in the 90s the club ran into financial difficulties and the Illtydians were indebted to club stalwart Alan Leaman, who purchased the club and allows the rugby section to continue to utilise the club for after match hospitality.
Post 2000 has been a more turbulent story on the field. The 2000’s has seen considerable ups and downs for the senior team, with championships, East District cup wins, and memorable cup runs (including another trip to Ebbw Vale and coming within a last minute penalty of a trip to the Millennium Stadium in the Bowl in 2013) mixed in with relegations and seasons of struggle. The mini and junior section, perhaps partly due to the itinerant nature of the club also dried up, which has seen a reduced player base at senior level in the last few years.
Club history – The move to Moorland, the Old Library, the rebirth of the mini section
In 2013, the club made the decision to move to the vacant pitch at Moorland Park. As well as being much closer to the club, this move was also coupled with acquiring the Old Library across the road from Moorland Park on a 99-year lease. The library had been empty for nearly 10 years and was in a state of considerable disrepair, and a major project began to repair and refit the library to turn it into a community hub that would benefit the people of Splott as well as Illtydian rugby and allow the club to become sustainable for the long term future.
A huge amount of time, effort and money was poured into this project and many Illtydians contributed, but the project would not have been possible without the remarkable contribution of 2 men. Chairman John Manders, whose brainchild the ground move and project was who worked tirelessly to successfully convince the Council to grant us the lease and of the viability of the project, liaised with community groups to garner support, sourced grant funding from the Lottery, Sport Wales and the WRU and generally drove on the whole project from initial idea to completion. Secondly Alan Leaman, who project managed the extensive renovations, sourced labour and materials at lowest prices and provided capital to complete the project when all the clubs’ reserves and grant funding had been exhausted. The contributions to the Illtydian cause of these 2 men should never be forgotten.
The library project now stands as an example of a WRU club of the future project, with the newer part of the building at the back of the library providing modern changing rooms and shower facilities for rugby and the front of the building a true community hub. Local childcare, school breakfast clubs, sports clubs, slimming world, theatre groups, faith groups, charities and more all utilise the library on a regular basis as well as the permanent presence of the Splott Community Volunteers who the club is proud to work so closely with and support, for the fantastic work they do in the local community. As well as being a true community resource, the library enables the rugby club to generate much needed income which is used to support the continued growth of our mini section.
The second and arguably even more important recent development has been the relaunch of our mini and junior section. Parents in our younger age groups today would struggle to believe that on a cloudy day in late October 2015, we held our first ever mini and junior taster session. About 17 kids turned up with ages ranging from 4 through to 14. This perhaps sounds more impressive than it is when you consider that 7 of the children were the offspring of the coaches! As numbers steadily grew, we played our first ever matches in February 2016 at u7 and u8. These kids are now our u14s and u15s, part of a mini and junior section that contains close to 180 kids, 9 teams and 25 coaches.
As a club we have tried to be proactive, engaging with local schools, working closely with our excellent hub office Llyr Davies and forming a partnership with SportXtra for younger children to help us drive growth. We are very proud to be one of the only clubs in Cardiff who does not charge any fees for kids to play rugby as we did not want any barriers to participation and for this we are indebted to the generosity of our sponsors.
In looking back over the entire 94 years it is a pleasure is to read a list of Old Illtydians who made the grade in top class rugby starting with pre-war Welsh trialist Edgar Welsh and other Cardiff RFC stalwarts such as Jim Hickey and Duncan Brown. In post war years the list is endless with Welsh trialists John Nelson, Kevin Bush,, Paul Donovan, and Cardiff Players such as Brian Mark, Peter Nyhan, Tom Burns, John McCarthy, Bernard Neagle and Chris Jones and Newport players Maurice Walsh and John Roblin. Alec Finlayson, the Illtydians first Welsh cap during the early 70’s was long overdue. David Bishop one of the old Illtydians famous sons became our next Welsh Cap scoring a try on his debut against Australia at the Arms Park and then having a great career as scrum half for Pontypool. David became a dual rugby international and subsequently a Great Britain Rugby league international. Other Illtydians who went on to play for top class clubs during the 70’, 80’s and 90’s include Mike Murphy, Gerard Meeghan, David Barry, Mark McJennett, Julian O’Brien and Chris Camilleri (all Cardiff), Andrew Taylor (Maesteg), John Manders (Newport), Paul ‘Pablo’ Rees (Ebbw Vale/Pontypool) to name a few.
We of course hope that some of our current mini and junior representatives can make similar journeys and progress to representative honours and perhaps the professional game but will be just as pleased if the kids progress through and play for the Old Illtydians senior side. The club did revive a youth side in the 2019/20 season that was unfortunately cut short due the onset of the pandemic. Several of this team is now making their mark in senior rugby. There is a lot to look forward to, with developments and improvements being made at Moorland Park and the library, the continued growth of our mini section and of course our centenary looming in 2028. The ambition is to see an Illtydian senior team full of young men who have developed through our mini section, and in our centenary year then those kids who played the first tag match in 2016 will all be of senior age! Something to look forward to indeed.
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