Our History

Who would have thought way back in 1962 on a warm sunny afternoon when the reformed Llanishen RFC played its first game that today, 53 years later the club would be preparing the 1st XV for a season in SWALEC National Division 1 East Central at the higher end of the league structure in Wales. I say reformed, because there are records of a Llanishen rugby team dateing back to before to the First World War and extending up to about 1936, but it was Gus Kitchen and Aubrey Evans who were the men with the foresight to establish the rugby club as we know it today.

That first game in 1962 was one to remember for the newly formed club, for a game had been arranged against a Glamorgan Wanderers Select XV, permission had been granted to use Cefn Onn primary school as changing rooms and the game was to be played on the Llangrannog road playing fields. After a long wait the new team, looking splendid in their new playing strip (then it was all white) were horrified to find that instead of their famous blue black and white wanderers strip, the visitors has arrived with an all white strip. Luckily their more resourced opponents dispatched a man in a car post-haste to get an alternative kit. We don’t have a record of the result however that was the start for LLanishen RFC as we know it and the local pub – The Church Inn became its focal point.

Over the next couple of seasons the club attracted more interest from the community and indeed, because of its popularity, the club introduced a 2nd XV in 1965 and as a result the club were allocated two playing pitches up the road at Heath Park but the Church Inn remained as the unofficial clubhouse. During the late 60’s the committee began to look at the possibility of the club having its own clubhouse. In October 1973 Llanishen RFC opened their new clubhouse at Ty Glas Avenue.

Soon after the club introduced the 3rd XV, then adding the Youth XV in 1975, so in just 13 years since that inaugural fixture as a pub team, Llanishen RFC was now running 4 teams, and had its very own clubhouse. The club grew from strength to strength over this time but the next significant milestone for was the acquisition of the lease to a piece of ground at Usk road in 1976, with a view to developing a pitch and changing rooms for the future. After a lot of hard work the dream finally became a reality in 1981, with the opening of Usk road with its own changing rooms and training area. These great new facilities prompted the club to now introduce the u16 section playing on Sunday mornings.

With fantastic developments off the pitch, results on the pitch also bean to improve in the mid 1980’s with a Welsh Brewrs cup final in 1984/5 and finals of both the Mallett and Ninian Stuart Cups in 1985/86. With things coming together both on and off the field, Membership to the Welsh Rugby Union was now the aim. After a number of applications, probationary membership was received in 1989 followed by full membership being granted in 1992 which was also the year began its Junior rugby section, now the Mini & Juniors also have very succesful and thriving teams from Under 7 to Under 16s with over 230+ Registered players.

Since that day the club has never looked back with all sections flourishing over the last 22 years with the 1st Xv rising through the National structure and the 2nd, 3rd and Youth XV all doing well in the Cardiff and District structure. Last season the 53rd for the club was also it’s most successful with the first team winning promotion to Division 1 South East Central league.