Rugby, they say, is a game for ruffians played by gentlemen. But that was never its way in Wales, where the clubs that sat at the heart of communities were filled with workers – particularly from the industrial south – from the mines and the steel mills. This was the same game they played in England, but a very different ethos, clubs like Llanelli and Pontypridd and Pontypool were built around an industrial team rather drawn from a public school.
From the very beginnings of rugby, it had a strong tradition within the working class in Wales that was very different to the ethos of the game in England. In England it was mostly played by the well off and dominated by public school boys. There was a world of difference, but one that its Welsh supporters embraced and made their own.
This difference ingrained a different cultural sense of the game in Wales. It connected strongly with national and community identity. Local rugby clubs had a central role to play in communities -connecting people off the field as well as on.
Welsh rugby is one of the iconic symbols of Welshness, according to Gareth Williams, professor of history in the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Wales at the University of Glamorgan, back in 2015.While Dr Hugh McKay, who researched Wales and its cultural identity for decades, once said he believed that “in many ways rugby in Wales defines what Wales is and what people in Wales share”.
Rugby in Wales has felt incredibly important. Looking back to a 2013 YouGov poll, Wales had the largest fan base amongst European nations at 44%, narrowly ahead of France at 42%. While 25% of the adult Welsh population proclaimed themselves to be rugby lovers, making it one of only two countries at the time (the other being Ireland) where the most avid fans outnumber the more casual followers.
And the iconography of Welsh rugby has overlapped strongly with Wales’ strong Labour heritage. Labour and the unions being at the heart of workers’ rights and the building of the NHS; Wales in the valleys being a rugby-playing Labour heartland.
Today, though, Wales’ rugby clubs are under all sorts of pressure. There are still 276 community clubs spread around Wales, but what was the quintessentially Welsh game is being played far less in schools, and as its players move towards professional levels many see a necessity to move to better financed English clubs.
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Currently the Welsh game feels a shadow of its former self. The Welsh men’s team were ‘wooden spoonists’ at the last Six Nations losing 18 games in a row, the worst run of defeats in a proud history more characterised by Triple Crowns and Grand Slams. The nation has been casting around for a coach who can dig them out of the doldrums. Perhaps not coincidentally, the number of Welsh sixth forms with a rugby team has dropped by half in the past 20 years.
It is, therefore, worth considering whether the continuing decline of Welsh rugby, from the heart of its communities to its professional clubs, may also be a factor in Wales feeling less affiliated to the Labour party – as indicated by the recent Caerphilly by-election. And whether former and current Labour voters feel disillusioned because a big part of their community is cracking and disappearing. From the club house, to the social events; the rugby club BBQ; or the parents out on the freezing cold half-way line, these may feel like disappearing symbols of a close-knit society. But they once felt like they were always going to be there forever.
For many in the past, a good helping of community wellbeing came from connections in and around the rugby club.
In the National Survey for Wales 2024-25, 58 % of people said they felt a sense of community within their local area, down from 64% in 2021/22. With young people saying they felt the least sense of community.
Meanwhile, Wales is now looking at the demise of one of its four professional teams (Cardiff, Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons) within the next few years, and rugby’s place at the heart of Welsh culture feels incredibly threatened.
“The proposed structural changes announced by the WRU (Welsh Rugby Union) today will resonate far beyond the pitch,” Ruth Jones MP, chair of the Welsh affairs select committee, said recently.
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That working class connection with Labour may be eroding too. Around 41% of Welsh respondents thought the Labour party was close to the working class in March 2024, according to a YouGov tracker, but that had dipped to 22% by August 2025.
A sense of community and sense of identity can be strongly aligned. They can also be incredibly difficult to pin down, or rebuild. But to succeed again in Wales Labour has to give it a try.
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