Caius and Cardiff extend connection

  • 30 September 2021
  • 4 minutes

When the historical connection between Gonville & Caius Rugby Club and Cardiff was revealed earlier this year, it was the start of a relationship which saw the students travel to south Wales on tour last week.

Gonville & Caius Rugby Club travelled to south Wales with a mixture of present players and Old Boys for a tour which has origins in the first Cardiff RFC photo of 1878-79. Cardiff adopted the colours of a jersey worn by Thomas William John Rees, who was then a student at Caius College. The story is on the Caius College website, and sparked connections which prompted a tour by the current Caius team.

Two photos showing two rugby teams

The re-creation of the photograph which sparked the Cardiff-Caius connection

The College players re-created the photograph at the Arms Park, Cardiff’s historic home, as a central part of the tour. The players had two training sessions at Blackweir Fields in central Cardiff, a tour of CF10’s museum – it was the Cardiff supporters’ club who uncovered the link – and watched Cardiff versus Connacht in the PRO14 opener, which Cardiff won 33-21.

Caius then played a Barry RFC team comprised of a mixture of second-team and veteran players, and enjoy the hosts’ hospitality afterwards.

Caius captain James O’Sullivan reports:

The match was a great way to cap off tour. When we got there, we were worried by the size of some of their players but no matter, Caius are often down on size even in Cambridge college games. The game started off cagy with neither team able to break the other down.

Barry were winning the collisions at this point but breakdown penalties were costing them. There were a lot of scrums with rusty hands on both sides; these were fairly equal with Barry having the edge with their size. Lineouts, however, were firmly in Caius’ favour and we were looking slick minus some suspect timing and accuracy from the thrower. The first half ended 0-0.

The second half started with a flurry of penalties against Barry resulting in a yellow card for repeated offences and Caius capitalised on the man advantage by spreading the ball out wide. Barry said after the game that they were much more used to smash mouth rugby from local teams so using our hands started paying off and Henry Weston scored a blinding chip and chase in the right-hand corner. A missed conversion meant it was 5-0 to Caius.

Caius were firmly on top at this point but in quick succession the tourists had a player yellow carded for a deliberate knock on (reminiscent of Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit vs England in the Six Nations earlier this year) and then a pass intercepted by Barry’s left wing, who went all the way from his own half to score under our posts. Barry converted to make it 7-5.

There was one final yellow card given to Barry for a late and tipped hit; however, to everyone’s memory it was the most good-natured game for one with three yellow cards – I think everyone had just forgotten the rules after so much time not being able to play.

After this point the game really opened up (it was briefly 14 vs 13 players) and there were line beaks galore with players tiring. One of these was for Caius scrum-half Sam Odu, who breezed through the Barry defensive line and linked up with two or three others to get down to the five-metre line. Then it was a simple pass to Jonny Gathercole to score on the left-hand side with a truck over the line. Another missed conversion meant Caius had a 10-7 lead. The game looked wrapped up but with the final play a Barry player went on a storming run breaking three or four tackles before scoring under the posts. A final conversion and the game ended 14-10 to Barry.

It was just the sort of match we wanted – fun and good natured and after all it is only polite to lose on tour…

Two photos of rugby shirts in museum display cases

In the museum we saw a replica of the shirt worn by Thomas Rees, above right, the Caian who brought the colours to Cardiff: https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/object/jersey-cardiff-fc-1877-replica

And we also saw the earliest genuine Cardiff Rugby shirt, above left, which looks uncannily like the Caius top of today: https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/object/jersey-cardiff-fc-1884

I’d like to thank Barry RFC for a great game and superb hospitality afterwards and also Steve Coombs and Sally Carter of CF10 especially for the photo, the museum tour and for helping me arrange the match against Barry and the training pitches.

Gonville & Caius Rugby Club (ob means Old Boy): 1. Harry Langford, 2. Luke Maxwell, 3. James O’Sullivan (captain), 4. Tom Kopmels (ob), 5. Nik Yazikov (vice-captain), 6. Oscar Hill, 7. Jonny Gathercole, 8. Will Davis, 9. Sam Odu, 10. Josh Grier (vice-captain), 11. Will Vaughn, 12. Hasan Cuthbert (ob), 13. Cameron Bonthrone (ob), 14. Henry Weston, 15. Rob Ryan (ob).

Two photos showing Caius rugby players on tour, one in a museum and one by a rugby pitch

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