Welsh Varsity 2011: The Millennium Stadium

on Dec 17 in Cardiff University, News tagged by Max

Cardiff University RFC have been a RuckinRugby club for some time and last year we enjoyed seeing Martyn Fowler and his men achieve their first ever back to back Varsity win over their arch rivals Swansea.

The Millennium Stadium will host the 15th anniversary rugby showdown between the Cardiff and Swansea University rugby teams when they meet for the Welsh Varsity 2011 on Wednesday, 30 March, 2011. The clash between Wales’ biggest universities is the showpiece event of their annual Varsity programme and will be held for the first time on the neutral ground of the Millennium Stadium.

There is a short video about the 2011 match here on the Official WRU website from WRUTV: Video link

The Inaugural Welsh Varsity Match was played in 1997 in the Welsh Capital and home of Cardiff Rugby Football Club, Cardiff Arms Park. The game was played by the two Welsh Premier Universities; Cardiff and Swansea and the highly successful “Varsity” model was adopted with all proceeds from the event going to Oxfam. In the early years the Welsh Varsity Match was held alternatively at Cardiff Arms Park and St Helens, the home of Swansea Rugby Club. In 2003 and until 2007 the game was held the neutral ground of the Brewery field in Bridgend.

For the large part of the Varsity Matches’ history Swansea have dominated the event winning to date 8 from 11, losing twice and drawing once. Swansea University have regularly enjoyed the ability to select very talented players, the like of Alun Wynn Jones, Ritchie Pugh, Dwayne Peel all current Welsh Internationals in their Varsity squads. 2007 saw Swansea field no less than 11 FIRA Internationals at varying ages. Cardiff have enjoyed success in recent years with the introduction of a Head of Rugby Post at Cardiff University; the current Head of Rugby Martyn Fowler was involved in all four of Cardiff Rugby Clubs Victories winning back to back victories for the first time in the clubs history in 2009.