page_title: Rugby league in Wales
section_title: Welsh professional clubs
hierarchical_section_title: Rugby league in Wales / Welsh professional clubs
caption_attribution_description: Telephoto test from a Celtic Crusaders game. It was an evening game so not great light. Also a good test of the highest iso settings.
context_page_description: Rugby league is a sport played in Wales. The governing body of the game in Wales is the Wales Rugby League.
  There is a long but sporadic history of rugby league in Wales. Over the decades many hundreds of players have "gone north" to play for the leading English clubs. Consequently, the national side, nicknamed the Dragons, have often been a very strong force in the international game.
context_section_description: There have been various attempts to introduce professional rugby league to Wales throughout the 20th century. Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale joined for the 1907/08 season; followed closely behind Aberdare, Barry, Mid-Rhondda and Treherbert joined in 1908/09. The 1908/09 season saw the first Welsh League, played alongside the Northern Union League.
  Aberdare, Barry, and Mid-Rhondda dropped out after that season, with Treherbert following the next year. Merthyr Tydfil lasted until 1910/11, and Ebbw Vale was the last of these to leave, after 1911/12. The next Welsh club was Pontypridd, who joined in 1926/27; only to dropped out after 8 games of the 1927/28 season. A Cardiff club participated in the 1951/52 season, but disbanded after that season.
  Following the example of Fulham F.C. (who founded the RL team that is now London Broncos), Cardiff City F.C. decided to enter a team for the 1981/82 season. The Blue Dragons, as they were known, shared Ninian Park with the Bluebirds until the 1983/84 season, when the club went into liquidation. They were then moved to Bridgend for the 1984/85 season, where they placed on the bottom of the table, and were expelled after the season for failing to obtain a home ground. Another attempt to establish a professional rugby league club was made in the 1990s. South Wales finished 6th in the Second Division in 1996, and, because of small crowds, withdrew from the league before the following season.
  There are now two professional rugby league clubs in Wales. The Crusaders Rugby League team, based in Wrexham, played in the Super League competition up until 2011. After going into administration they have become North Wales Crusaders. The second club is llanelli-based West Wales Raiders established in 2017 following the demise of the South Wales Ironmen side which were based in Merthyr Tydfil.  Both teams currently play in the League 1 competition in 2018.
caption: Celtic Crusaders (black) are the only Welsh club to have competed in the Super League, having done so between 2009 and 2011.
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K10D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:02:21 20:37:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "165", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "708", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1110", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4458", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:02:16 18:03:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:02:16 18:03:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "110", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3684", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1777", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}