Welsh Rugby | Welsh Identity

“This is a game that came from the English public schools into Wales and became the obsession of the working class,” explains historian Professor Gareth Williams. “From the 1890s we start to see big crowds of 30,000 to 40,000 at matches. The press coverage increases, people are travelling distances to watch matches and the whole club infrastructure is developing.

“We won the Triple Crown [beating England, Scotland and Ireland] for the first time in 1893 and then went into the Golden Era in 1900, winning the Triple Crown six times in the next 11 years. And, of course, the great triumph – and one of the pivotal moments in the cultural history of Wales – is the victory over New Zealand in 1905.”

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