Birth of Rugby in Cardiff and Wales

A native of Cardiff who played alongside Gareth Edwards in the 1965 Welsh Secondary Schools team and later played for Cambridge University, Gwyn Prescott was awarded an MPhil, on the history of rugby, by the University of Glamorgan. He is also the author of 'Call Them to Remembrance': The Welsh rugby internationals who died in the Great War, (St. David's Press).

"In December 1905, The Irish Times dispatched a reporter to cover the All Blacks game in Cardiff. Only a little over thirty years earlier, apart from a few young middle-class blades who took exercise by occasionally playing with an oval ball, the game of rugby was barely known in the town. Yet following the historic Welsh victory over New Zealand, that Irish journalist memorably described the excited, good humoured and wildly enthusiastic crowds he witnessed that day in and around the Arms Park as "this rugby spellbound people." He went on to declare that the Welsh were "undoubtedly the best exponents of the game." from the Introduction; 'scrupulously researched...well written, Gwyn Prescott has given [rugby in Wales] a history to be proud of.' Huw Richards, scrum.com; "Prescott paints a meticulous picture of Welsh rugby's growth in Victorian Britain" Rugby World; "a fascinating piece of research and a major contribution to the history of rugby, not just in Wales but generally." Tony Collins, author of A Social History of English Rugby Union

• Foreword by Professor Gareth Williams 1. Introduction: 'The contagion will spread' 2. From Football to Rugby: 'Neither dribbling fish nor handling foul' 3. The Game is Established: 'The running business' 4. The Clubs: 'In Cardiff and district surely their name is legion' 5. Organisation and Participation: 'Administered by the few, played by the many' 6. Rugby's Wider Impact: 'Football, or, Life in Cardiff' 7. Conclusions: 'The noble game is not totally unknown here'