Crusaders Rugby Club

Rugby is a sport that could be described as the national sport in Wales, as it is the most popular. Indeed, most of the people and in particular young people like to play this sport in clubs.

In Wrexham there is a rugby club: Wrexham Rugby Union Football Club. This has about 250 members. There are various teams for each age. There are teams for children who have between 7 and 16 years, but also teams for youth and seniors.

Moreover, the enthusiasm for rugby is even stronger since the Crusaders returned to settle in the city, little time ago. Since, supporters are always numerous at matches and they keep a tremendous enthusiasm.

Crusaders Rugby League (known simply as Crusaders) is a Welsh professional rugby league club (teams are composed of 13 players) based in Wrexham. Created in 2005, the club aimed to join the Super League. Winner of the third level of rugby league in 2007, second of the second level in 2008, the club got from the Rugby Football League a three years license to compete in the Super League in 2009 and the club became the leading team of rugby league in Wales, like the Catalans Dragons in France. They were part of the Super League from 2009 to 2011, becoming the first and only Welsh representative in this competition, established in 1996. At the end of the 2011 season due to financial difficulties and low crowds, they had to give back their Super League license and a new organization; the North Wales Crusaders took over and joined the Championship 1. Where it found another Welsh professional club: South Wales Scorpions. The Crusaders now play all their home games at Racecourse Ground with 15,500 seats.

We contacted an administration member of the team to ask him some questions. He confirmed that the love for rugby in Wales is unconditional. Indeed, since the Crusaders are back, they have more 7000 fans on Facebook and 100 members in the supporters club and the stadium is always filled with about 1000 supporters. He told us that players are semi-professional; they have jobs, but get paid by Crusaders also. They train twice a week during 5h. He also said that the team had a very strong cohesion that allowed players to have good performance even if they are playing together since only 2 years.

In fact, since the beginning of the season they won all their matches, which was the same for the London team.

On April 14, 2013 we went to the Glyndwr stadium in Wrexham to see the Crusaders confronting the London Skolars. The atmosphere was great and the supporters too.

Match: Crusaders VS London Skolars

We expected a game very tight. However, the Crusaders played a very good game and they won widely 44-6. Rugby is definitively the sport in Wales.