The Barbarian Football Club, known as the Barbarians is a British-based invitational rugby union club. The Barbarians play in black and white hoops, though players wear socks from their own club strip. Membership is by invitation. As of 2011, players from 31 countries had played for them. Traditionally at least one uncapped player is selected for each match.
Northampton Saints is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
The Ospreys, formerly the Neath-Swansea Ospreys is one of the four professional rugby union teams from Wales. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team formed as a result of Neath RFC and Swansea RFC combining to create a new merged entity, as part of the new regional structure of Welsh rugby, that began in 2003. They are also affiliated with a number of local semi-professional and amateur clubs, including Welsh Premier Division sides Aberavon RFC, Bridgend Ravens, and original founding clubs Neath and Swansea. The regional area represented by the team has widely become known for rugby purposes as 'Ospreylia'.
Dragons RFC are one of the four professional rugby union regional teams in Wales. They are owned by the Welsh Rugby Union and play their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport and at other grounds around the region. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup/European Rugby Challenge Cup. The region they represent covers an area of southeast Wales including Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen with a total population approaching 600,000 and they are affiliated with a number of semi-professional and amateur clubs throughout the area, including Pontypool RFC, Caerphilly RFC, Cross Keys RFC, Ebbw Vale RFC and Newport RFC.
Rugby union in Wales is considered a large part of Welsh national culture. Rugby union is thought to have reached Wales in the 1850s, with the national body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) being formed in 1881. Wales are considered to be one of the most successful national sides in Rugby Union, having won the most Six Nations Championships, as well as having reached 3 World Cup semi finals in 1987, 2011 and 2019, having finished 3rd in the inaugural competition and having finished 4th in 2011 in a repeat of the first third place play-off. The Welsh team of the 1970s is considered to be arguably the greatest national team of all time, prompting many experts in the game to suggest that had the Rugby World Cup existed during this period, Wales would be amongst the list of World Cup winners. As of November 2021, they are ranked 8th in the world.
Gavin Lloyd Henson is a Welsh former professional rugby union player, who played as a fly-half, fullback and inside centre.
Philip Thomas Davies is a Welsh former rugby union footballer of the 1980s and 1990s. He is now an international coach, currently serving as director of rugby at Leeds Tykes, whilst running his own sports consultancy company.
Justin Warren Marshall is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He played 81 games for the New Zealand All Blacks between 1995 and 2005.
Ryan Paul Jones is a Wales former international rugby union player who played at number eight, blindside flanker or second row. He was involved in three Grand Slam wins, in 2005, as captain in 2008, and 2012. He is one of a small group of Welsh players to have won three Grand Slams including Gerald Davies, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, Adam Jones, Gethin Jenkins and Alun Wyn Jones.
Shane Mark Williams, is a Welsh rugby union player most famous for his long and successful tenure as a wing for the Ospreys and the Wales national team. He also played scrum-half on occasion. Williams is the record try scorer for Wales, and is fourth on the international list of leading rugby union test try scorers behind Daisuke Ohata, Bryan Habana and David Campese. He is Wales's most capped winger and is considered to be one of the greatest wingers of all time.
William Michael Phillips is a rugby union player who plays at scrum-half. On 16 March 2013, Phillips surpassed the record of 76 caps set by Dwayne Peel as the most capped scrum-half for Wales.
Alun Wyn Jones is a Welsh professional rugby union player who plays as a lock for the Ospreys and the Wales national team. He is the world's most-capped rugby union player. Jones also holds the records for the most Wales caps and the most Wales caps as captain.
Lyn Jones is a former Wales international rugby union player, and now works as a coach. A flanker, Jones has experience at various different levels of the game, both as a player and a coach. Jones played most of his playing career for Neath RFC. He started his coaching career at the same club. He has coached professional clubs in Wales and England, and since 2018 has been head coach of the Russian national rugby union team. He is currently coaching the national rugby team of the Netherlands.
Chris Robshaw is an English former rugby union player. He was the captain of the England national rugby union team from January 2012 until December 2015. Robshaw's position of choice was in the back row of the scrum, usually flanker.
Rhys Webb is a Welsh rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for Ospreys. Born in Bridgend, he is a product of the Ospreys academy and played club rugby for Bridgend RFC and Aberavon RFC before breaking into the regional side in 2008. He played for the Ospreys for 10 years before moving to French club Toulon in 2018, but terminated his contract with them in 2020 and agreed a return to the Ospreys; however, he was unable to join the Ospreys immediately and signed for Bath for the remainder of the 2019–20 season before returning to the Ospreys.
Thretton Palamo is an American rugby union player who plays centre for Old Glory DC of Major League Rugby (MLR).
Norman Witchell Biggs was a Welsh international rugby union wing who played club rugby for Cardiff and county rugby for Glamorgan. Both Biggs and his brother Selwyn played international rugby for Wales, though they never played together in the same match for Wales. Biggs also played cricket for Glamorgan and in 1893 was part of a team that took on Cardiff in a two-day match; he faced his brother Selwyn, who was a member of the Cardiff team.
Hanno Dirksen is a South African rugby union player currently playing for NOLA Gold of Major League Rugby (MLR).
Ollie Thorley is an English rugby union player who plays for Gloucester in the Premiership Rugby.
