The first ever organised game of rugby in Wales between St David’s College, Lampeter and Llandovery College is to be commemorated in the very village where the clash took place 166 years ago writes Huw S Thomas.

A game between Trinity St David’s College, Lampeter Past and Present and a Llandovery College XV has been scheduled for a 2pm kick off on Friday, 2 December in Caio – a village half way between the two towns – on the very field where the game was first played in Wales.

It will be part of celebrations to mark the bi-centenary of the laying of the foundation stone of St David’s College, Lampeter in 1822 and Llandovery College’s 175 years of existence.

The game will take place at Glanrannel by kind permission of the owner David Chaplin on the same piece of land that hosted the initial game between the two colleges back in 1866.

The event will also provide an opportunity for the people of Caio to celebrate their village’s contribution to Welsh rugby.

Post match celebrations and a General Knowledge /Sports Quiz are scheduled for the Caio village pub – the Brunant Arms - which has recently reopened under new landlord Ian Barr.

Later in the day, historian Selwyn Walters will be the guest speaker at an official dinner back at Trinty St David’s Lloyd Thomas Dining Hall at 7pm

Because of health and safety issues surrounding the respective ages of the two sides, contact will be restricted for the Friday game but a day later - on Saturday, 3 December - a full blooded game between the Old Boys of St David’s and Llandovery College will take place on Lampeter RFC’s ground KO 2 30pm.

It is widely recognised - and endorsed by the parent body the Welsh Rugby Union - that the game of rugby was introduced into Wales at Lampeter thanks to the Rev Professor Rowland Williams, who became Vice-Principal of St David’s College in 1850 and who encouraged students to play it in their spare time.

Visitors driving into the town are greeted with a signpost reminding them that they are entering Lampeter: the birthplace of rugby in Wales

What is not so widely known is that the first competitive game between the then St David’s Theological College and independent school Llandovery College was not played in the town of Lampeter but in the Carmarthenshire village of Caio.

Professor Williams had acquired knowledge of the game as played by Rugby School when a student at King’s College, Cambridge where a band of Old Rugbeians had introduced the game to fellow Cambridge University students.

He was at Cambridge during the abortive attempt to establish a code of rules in 1848, and must have heard of the meetings. Further at Lampeter, he embarked on an extensive programme of reforms and had noted, with regret, the lack of organised games.

Articles in the university’s archives recount former students reminiscing about playing rugby at Lampeter in the 1850s and internal rugby matches were probably played between students from 1850 onwards.

For lack of primary sources, the date of that first game is problematic but it was probably in 1866 that the theological students from Lampeter faced their public school opponents from nearby Llandovery.

Llandovery College were playing rugby at the same time as St David’s College, the game having been brought to the independent school in the time of the then Warden, the Rev William Watkins (1861-1875) by schoolmasters educated in England and familiar with the game of rugby.

The tiny Carmarthenshire village of Caio sits half way between Lampeter and Llandovery and was chosen as a venue because of its convenient position at a time when coach and horse travel was a challenge to both man and beast.

In his excellent book on the story of St David’s College rugby, The Fighting Parsons, historian Selwyn Walters quotes Professor H A Harris who in his book Sport in Britain: Its Origins and Developement claims “that the first ever game of rugby in Wales was played in 1856 between a team from Lampeter College and a team from Llandovery College.”

“The game was played in the village of Caio in Carmarthenshire, which is roughly half way between the two colleges.”

Walters suggests that 1856 in Harris’ account is a typographical error and that the story he relates refers to the match held in 1866 making it the first competitive match using the rugby rules as laid down at Rugby School and 15 years before the very formation of the Welsh Rugby Union in Neath in 1881.

Caio was to be used on several occasions as the venue of the game between St David’s College and Llandovery College.

The Llandovery College Journal of March 1879 recounts “the first match for some years between these clubs took place at Caio, a small but picturesquely situated village about mid way between Lampeter and Llandovery.

“A large field was kindly lent for the occasion by Mr Jenkins of Glanranell.”

“It ws not surprising that many of the boys walked a distance of about nine miles to see the match, as several old boys were more than likely to play against us.”

Matches of celebration between Lampeter RFC and invitation sides were played in 1966 and 2016 but sadly, the two colleges had yet to celebrate this unique game.

But, the field in or around Glanrannell found, and teams from St David’s Lampeter and Llandovery College formed, what better way to celebrate once again the famous and historic game back in 1866 than with a rematch between the two colleges at Caio and another between the respective Old Boys at Lampeter?

The link between Llandovery and St David’s was strong with many Llandoverians going on to St David’s before entering the church.

Ernest Melville Rowland played for Llandovery College and then St David’s College before gaining his one and only cap as a forward against England in 1885.

Alfred Augustus Mathews played for Llandovery College, St David’s College and Swansea and was capped at half back against Scotland in 1886.

David ‘Bailey’ Davies who first played rugby while at St. David’s College, and then Oxford, won three rugby Blues 1905-6-7

He played against the All Blacks during their 1905 tour and was capped for Wales at full back against England in 1907.

After leaving Oxford in 1908, he was an assistant maths master at Llandovery College before moving to London and in 1918 was awarded the Military Cross when a second lieutenant in the Welsh Guards.

Interestingly, Caio was the birthplace of John Strand Jones who studied at St David’s before being capped five times for Wales 1902-03 when a Llanelli player.

He kicked the winning goal against England to help Wales win the Triple Crown in 1902 and later took a Rev Strand Jones XV to Llandovery College on a regular basis, even scoring for his invitation side in the 1905 fixture.