Swansea Ladies playing for Swansea , all but 8 of them for Wales . The club has also sent 23 ‘ Lions ’ on tour , Fred Jowett and Sid Bevan being the first in 1904 .
Players legendary in the rugby world have donned the famous white jersey ; From Billy Bancroft , the James Brothers Evan and David , Dickie Owen and Billy Trew , Dan Rees and Will Joseph of the first Welsh ‘ Golden era ’; to Rowe Harding , Claude Davey and the famous Gowerton Schoolboys Willie Davies and Haydn Tanner who masterminded the downfall of the “ All Blacks ”.
The list is nearly endless and of the highest calibre , filled with the likes of Dewi Bebb , Mervyn Davies , Geoff Wheel and on to Scott Gibbs , Mark Taylor , Richard and Paul Moriarty , Tony Clement , Arwel Thomas , Colin Charvis and Garin Jenkins . Cup and league success has been achieved many times but the real measure of the club is the forward looking attitude that carries us into the twenty first century world of rugby .
Modern players of the standing of Alun Wyn Jones , Dan Biggar , Jonathan Thomas , Gavin Henson , Dan Baker , Hanno Dirksen , and more recently Keelan Giles have developed through the Swansea club to Ospreys and International stages .
This season , the club are expanding their rugby history with the establishment of the first All Whites women ’ s team who are competing in the Women ’ s Premiership League . With the demand for recreational women ’ s and girl ’ s rugby opportunities significantly increasing over the past couple of years , the establishment of a women ’ s team at Swansea RFC coincided with the need for additional women ’ s rugby opportunities in the region .
The club ’ s link with Swansea University also allowed the club an option to offer the opportunity for female students to participate in weekend recreational rugby at club level . Further to this , St Helen ’ s also became the home of the Ospreys Women ’ s matches this season , hosting their regional championship fixtures at the ground .
Coached by Nick Edwards , and captained by Wales International , Siwan Lillicrap , SWRFC kicked off their first season ’ s campaign with an away trip to Cardiff Met which saw them secure an impressive 0-122 win in their inaugural match - a strong statement of intent from the team on their plans for the season !
The historic home debut for the women came on the 25th September when the club welcomed last season ’ s National League Champions Pontyclun Falcons . A slightly reserved start to the game , the match finished with a comfortable 38-8 victory , with Vice captain Kerin Lake entering into the history books as the first Swansea women ’ s try scorer at St Helens , and also took player of the match . A further five consecutive wins have since followed versus Whitland , Caernarfon in both matches , Llandaff North , and Gwernyfed in the first round of the Super Cup tournament .
New to the league this season , is the introduction of the Premier Cup which is being played between January and March to accommodate extra game time for clubs during the traditional break in women ’ s matches whilst the International tournaments take place .
With the first half of league fixtures having finished in early December , and not due re-commence until April , the competition is one step towards securing season long fixtures and increasing game time for women ’ s rugby at this level . SWRFC currently sit top of the table in the cup fixtures , with the team aiming for a first place finish come April !
The first half of the season saw some impressive player stats , reinforcing the dedication and effort of the team as newly fledged All Whites . Ffion Bowen tops the try scorer table with 13 tries across 5 games , whilst Beth Preece has totted up 38 successful conversions over six
games . Flanker Natalie Watkins went one further than a hat-trick , and scored four tries in the opening round of the Super Cup , whilst Wales International , Amy Evans , holds the accolade of scoring the try to take the team over 100 points in the first SWRFC match .
On the International front , SWRFC have this season seen five players selected in the Wales Women ’ s Six Nations squad ( Kerin Lake , Siwan Lillicrap , Amy Thomas , Adi Taviner and Keira Bevan ), along with a selection of the girls playing at regional level with the Ospreys during the regional championship fixtures including Ffion Bowen , Elli Norkett , Alecs Donavan , Amy Thomas .
Looking ahead to future plans , the aim this season is to remain unbeaten in all three competitions , with the potential to top the league , and win both the Super Cup and Premier Cup tournaments .
With player numbers increasing , one question for the club is development of a second team or an under 18s team to further expand the provision of women ’ s rugby , but with the senior team only just starting out , it ’ s one match at a time for future developments !
Article provided by Hannah Willis
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