The Welsh Students Rugby Union Freshers League will see over 200 students playing competitive rugby on a weekly basis throughout Wales.
The league will consist of teams from the University of Glamorgan, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff University and Swansea University.
Kicking off this Sunday, October 7, the league sees teams from the participating universities going head to head in a competition at Glamorgan Sport Park. The league culminates in the finals which take place on Sunday 9 December.
“Every year, universities are inundated with students wanting to play rugby. Although most universities run three of four teams, there are only limited places available and many first year students may miss out on being selected for the teams,” said Dr Tudor Williams, Director of Sport at the University of Glamorgan.
“That is why we have worked together with the WRU to create a new league allowing more people to engage with the sport. It is fantastic that every Sunday we will see over 200 students playing the sport. We are extremely grateful for the WRU’s support. ”
“The Welsh Students Freshers League is the second stage of the development of student rugby within Wales following the re-launch of the Welsh Students National Team last season,” added WRU Rugby Partnership Manager Adrian Evans.
“With nearly 20,000 first year students attending university in Wales, this is clearly an important sector for universities to engage with in a sporting sense.
“The 18 to 20 age group has been a historical drop off point in rugby participation in Wales but with the excellent work of the universities involved in this competition, I’d hope that they can assist in keeping more players involved in the game at senior level.”
The new tournament aims to keep as many first year students as possible involved in playing rugby while they study for their degree. For Cardiff University, this is vital according to head of rugby Martin Fowler.
“Being in the heart of Cardiff, we get lots of young men from all over the country looking to come to Cardiff University, primarily to study but also to play rugby,” he said.
“This year we had a freshers intake of 226 and we’ve got three freshers teams this year. The freshers league was a matter of priority for us as we have hundreds of students in Cardiff not playing local rugby.”
