Wales Rugby League and Mountain Ash RFC are
delighted to announce that they will be sponsoring and hosting the “Mountain
Ash Festival of Rugby League” over eight days in late August and early
September at Duffryn Pennar Park, the home of the Old Firm, Mountain Ash RFC.
The festival will comprise of two main matches over
two weekends, additional community games, along with proposed coaching in local
schools.
On Saturday August 30, Wales will take
on England at under 16 level, kick-off 2:00pm, while just over a week later, on
Sunday September 7, Kingstone Press Championship 1 Rugby League
comes to the town when the South Wales Scorpions take on Hunslet Hawks,
kick-off 3:00pm.
Mountain Ash RFC has produced a number of Rugby League internationals during its long and proud history,
including former Wigan star Bert Jenkins who played in Wales’ first ever Rugby
League international, a 9-8 win over New Zealand just up the road in Aberdare
on New Years’ Day 1908, Charles Sage who played for September 7th
visitors Hunslet Hawks in the 1920s, John Thorley who was a Rugby League World
Cup winner with Great Britain in the first ever competition in 1954, Dickie
Williams, who was another former Hunslet player and who was Great Britain Lions
tour captain to Australia in 1954, and current chairman of Wales Rugby League,
Brian Juliff.
Juliff, the instigator of the Festival due to the
links he has with his former club, is delighted that Rugby League will be
played in his home town at last. “I’m delighted that Mountain Ash RFC has
agreed to host two important fixtures for us,” he said. “Both Wales v England
on Saturday August 30 and South Wales Scorpions v Hunslet Hawks on
Sunday September 7 will be exciting events. “It is a very exciting
moment for Wales Rugby League as we ‘go back to the future’ by playing an
International Rugby League game in the Cynon Valley.
“Wales Under 16 will play England at Mountain Ash
and will follow in the footsteps of the earliest of the 13-man game as the
first professional rugby international anywhere in the world was played on the
Ynys Fields just up the road in Aberdare. That game produced an historic
victory for Wales against the first ever professional All Blacks. Nicknamed in
the media as the ‘All Golds’, some of those players were part of the almost
invincible amateur New Zealand All Blacks that had toured the UK in 1905, and
were encouraged to play professionally and to take on the likes of the miners
in the valleys of South Wales and the north of England, who were protecting
their families by accepting ‘broken time’ payments, for money lost due to
playing on Saturdays and missing a shift at the coalface. Wales, of course, won
the game in 1905 as well. The 1908 game was played under ’Northern Union Rules’
which of course matured into today’s fast and exciting rugby form known as
Rugby League. England are formidable opponents and remain excellent supporters
of the game in Wales, so I am anticipating a warm welcome to the young stars of
the future from both teams, as they display their rugby skills in what will be
a very competitive game on 30 August.
We’re also delighted to welcome Hunslet Hawks to
Mountain Ash on 7 September, another big historic date for the
Welsh valleys, as it will be 107 years to the very day that Merthyr Tydfil took
on Oldham in the first ever professional game of rugby to take place in Wales.”
Martyn Ham, Mountain Ash RFC’s Press Officer, said:
“We are delighted to be able to host these two games
for the Wales Rugby League. We feel that Duffryn Pennar Park, the home of Old
Firm rugby, is an excellent match venue with its 425 seat grandstand and
dressing rooms underneath, floodlights, parking facilities and excellent road
links. A number of us attended the recent South Wales Scorpions v London
Skolars match at Cardiff Arms Park and we were impressed with what we saw. We
all very much want to make a success of these two matches here in Mountain Ash
and welcome all supporters from near and far to come along, enjoy the day and
support this new venture.” Tickets for both events will be available from www.scorpionsrl.com from next week.
Match Details
Saturday, 30 August 2014, Duffryn
Pennar Park, Mountain Ash RFC,
Wales Under 16 v England Under 16 Rugby
League International, Kick Off 2:00pm
Admission : Adults £3, Senior Citizens
£2, Under 19s £1, Under 16s Free.
Sunday, 7 September 2014, Duffryn
Pennar Park, Mountain Ash RFC
South Wales Scorpions v Hunslet Hawks,
Kick Off 3:00pm
Admission : Adults £5, Senior Citizens
£3, Under 19s £2, Under 16s £1.
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