THE first rugby match ever played in Wales was recreated over the weekend as part of the bicentenary celebrations of Lampeter’s university.

The Lampeter Society and alumni from the Lampeter campus marked the occasion of the bicentenary of the laying of the foundation stone of St David’s College, Lampeter in 1822 by celebrating the college’s historic contribution to rugby in Wales during their Old Codgers alumni rugby weekend. It is widely accepted that rugby was introduced to Wales by the Rev. Professor Rowland Williams, who became Vice-Principal of St David’s College in 1850 and who’d played Rugby Football as a student at Kings College, Cambridge.

The rugby celebration recreated the first ever competitive rugby match to be played in Wales between St David’s College Lampeter (SDUC) and Llandovery College in Caio in 1866. They originally decided to play at this rural village in the Cothi Valley as it was halfway between the towns of Llandovery and Lampeter.

On Friday evening, a dinner was held at the Lloyd Thomas Dining Hall with Lampeter’s rugby historian Selwyn Walters as guest speaker.

Mr Walters said: “It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity, once again, to celebrate the fact that St. David’s College, Lampeter, was the birthplace of Rugby Football in Wales. It is also most appropriate that these celebrations focus on the match played between Lampeter College and Llandovery College at Caio in 1866. “This event confirms all that went before: that Arthur Pell, an Old Rugbeian, introduced his school’s laws of football to Cambridge University, which was witnessed by the sporting Rowland Williams, who brought the game to Lampeter when he became Vice Principal at the College in 1850, and that the Rugby playing students of St. David’s College had to wait until other educational establishments in Wales took up the game before they could play competitive matches externally. This came when Llandovery College took up a game close enough to the Laws of Rugby Football that Lampeter College were prepared to challenge them to a match in 1866. “The importance of this match played in Caio for convenience, cannot be overstressed, because in 1966 it was officially recognised by the Welsh Rugby Union as the first ever match in Wales to be played by an organised Rugby Football Club.

“All other Rugby Football Clubs in Wales, without exception, were founded after 1866, making St. David’s College, Lampeter, the oldest in Wales.”

Esther Weller, Chairman of the Lampeter Society said: “The Lampeter Society are extremely pleased that our final celebratory event marks Lampeter’s important role in the history of rugby in Wales.”