Mountain Ash RFC
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| Full name | Mountain Ash Rugby Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | the Old Firm |
| Founded | 1875 |
| Location | Mountain Ash, Wales |
| Ground(s) | Parc Duffryn Pennar |
| Coach(es) | Paul Edwards |
| League(s) | WRU Division One East |
| 2011-12 | 11th |
| Official website | |
| www |
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Mountain Ash RFC is a Welsh rugby union team from the town of Mountain Ash, in the Cynon Valley, South Wales. Mountain Ash RFC is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Cardiff Blues.
The team was founded in 1875 at a meeting in the Mountain Ash Inn, but their first game in earnest was not until 1891, against Swansea at the Washery Field. Some of their early fixtures were against Llanelli, Cardiff and Newport. Mountain Ash provided their first Wales international in 1892, when Frank Mills was selected for the Home Nations Championship, though at the time he had left Mountain Ash and was then representing Cardiff. It only took another four years for Mountain Ash to claim their first full international to represent Wales while still playing for the club, when Fred Miller was chosen to face Ireland in the 1896 Home Nations Championship. They managed to beat the touring Canadian team in 1904, and in the same year, moved headquarters to the Cresselly Inn. Four years later, they moved to the Recreation Ground, and established their headquarters at the Glancynon Hotel, their current clubhouse.
In 1912, the team toured the south of France, and managed to beat Bayonne RFC and Pau, but the outbreak of the First World War made it difficult for the club to continue. The situation grew even worse during the Second World War, when there were no games played from 1939 to 1946. They survived through this period, however, often maintaining at least one player in the Welsh team. In 1953, the county council removed the grandstand and the perimeter fence from the Recreation Ground, which proved to be devastating for the club, as most first class clubs refused to play there.
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