Maesteg Rugby Football Club is a rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team from the town of Maesteg

Maesteg

Maesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 17,859, but it is now at an estimate of 20,000....

, South Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. The club presently play in the Welsh Rugby Union

Welsh Rugby Union

The Welsh Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Wales, recognised by the International Rugby Board.The union's patron is Queen Elizabeth II, and her grandson Prince William of Wales became the Vice Royal Patron of the Welsh Rugby Union as of February 2007.-History:The roots of the...

 Division One West

WRU Division One West

The Welsh Rugby Union Division One West is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented for the 1995/96 season.- Competition:There are 12 clubs in the WRU Division One West...

 and is a feeder club for the Ospreys.

Club history

Maesteg RFC was formed in 1877 in the Llynfi Valley, in the county of Glamorgan

Glamorgan

Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...

. They were county league champions 1912 to 1913. The 1949 team completed their season without losing a single game. In 1978 and 1979 they were the Whitbread

Whitbread

Whitbread PLC is a global hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company headquartered in Dunstable, United Kingdom. Its largest division is Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with around 580 hotels and over 40,000 rooms. Its Costa Coffee chain has around 1,600 stores across 25...

 league champions. In 1982 they played the Irish Wolfhounds, Crawshays RFC

Crawshays RFC

Crawshays Welsh RFC is an invitational rugby union team.In 1922 Captain Geoffrey Crawshay was invited by the Engineer Commander of Devonport Services, SF Cooper, to bring a team of Welsh rugby union players to play Devonport Services RFC...

, Toronto Welsh RFC

Toronto Welsh RFC

The Toronto Welsh Rugby Football Club was founded in 1961 in Ontario, Canada.The founding members were Peter Hughes, Don Farquarson, and Ron Jones. The latter became the first team captain of the club. It was originally intended that only Welsh players would play for the club, but this never...

, German Federation and the New Zealand Māoris

New Zealand Maori rugby union team

New Zealand Māori is a rugby union team that traditionally plays teams touring New Zealand. A prerequisite for playing in this team is that the player is to have Māori whakapapa or genealogy. In the past this rule was not strictly applied. In the past non-Māori players who looked Māori were often...

; they held the latter to a 10-10 draw. These games were thought at the time to be part of the centenary season of the club. It was later discovered that this was untrue, as the centenary was five years earlier.

Maesteg were promoted to the Welsh Premier Division

Welsh Premier Division

The Welsh Premier Division is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union for the 1990–91 season.-Competition history:...

 in 2005, but were relegated back to division one when they came bottom of the league in the 2007/08 season.

Notable former players

See also :Category:Maesteg RFC players

Allan Bateman

Allan Bateman

Allan Glen Bateman is a Welsh former rugby union and rugby league player, a dual-code rugby international centre who represented the British Lions at rugby union and Great Britain at rugby league....

 Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 international & British Lion

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 Gwyn Evans

Gwyn Evans

Gwyn Evans is a former international rugby union player. In 1983 he toured New Zealand with the British and Irish Lions. He played club rugby for Maesteg RFC.-Notes:...

 Wales international and British Lion Ray Hopkins

Ray Hopkins

Ray "Chico" Hopkins is a Welsh international rugby player who was also a member of the British Lions.Outside rugby he was a National Coal Board fitter at their workshop in Maesteg.-Club career:...

 Wales international and British Lion Fred Hutchinson

Fred Hutchinson (rugby player)

Frederick Osborne Hutchinson was a Welsh international rugby union back row who played club rugby for Maesteg, Bridgend and Neath and international rugby for Wales.-Rugby career:...

 Trevor Lloyd

Trevor Lloyd

Trevor Lloyd is a former international rugby union player.Lloyd hailed from Port Talbot, where he started playing club rugby with the Aberavon Quins RFC, he made his debut for Wales on 14 March 1953 versus Ireland and was selected for the 1955 British Lions tour to South Africa...

 Wales international and British Lion Charlie Pugh

Charlie Pugh

Charles Henry Pugh was a Welsh international rugby union player who played rugby for three notable Welsh clubs, Aberavon, Maesteg and Neath...

 Alan Rees

Alan Rees (rugby)

Alan Henry Morgan Rees is a former Welsh rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1960s who at representative level played rugby union for Wales, and at club level for Maesteg RFCat Fly-half...

 Wales international David Watts

David Watts (rugby player)

David Watts was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Maesteg. He won four caps for Wales, all in 1914 and may have been awarded more, but his career was cut short by the outbreak of World War I....

Club honours

• Glamorgan Challenge Cup 1912 - Champions
• Whitbread Merit Table 1977/78 - Champions
• Whitbread Merit Table 1978/79 - Champions
• SWALEC Plate 2009/10 - Champions
• WRU Division Two West
  WRU Division Two West
  The Welsh Rugby Union Division Two West is a rugby union league in Wales.- Competition:There are 12 clubs in the WRU Division Two West...
  
  2009.10 - Champions