The Toronto Welsh Rugby Football Club was founded in 1961 in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

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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 materialized. The first games were played at High Park.

One of the best players to come through the ranks was Dave Lougheed

Dave Lougheed

David Cameron Lougheed is a Canadian former rugby union footballer, playing at wing and centre. He was considered large for a winger, being 1.88m tall and weighing 91 kg though his quick feet and amazing hands made up any imbalances.Lougheed was educated at Queen's University, Canada,...

. He represented Canada at international level in 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...

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The club has strong links with many teams from 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...

, including Pontypridd RFC

Pontypridd RFC

Pontypridd Rugby Football Club, known as Ponty, are a rugby union team from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, currently playing in the British and Irish Cup, Principality Premiership, and are the current SWALEC Cup champions....

, Maesteg RFC

Maesteg RFC

Maesteg Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from the town of Maesteg, South Wales. The club presently play in the Welsh Rugby Union Division One West and is a feeder club for the Ospreys.-Club history:...

, and Kidwelly RFC

Kidwelly RFC

Kidwelly Rugby Fottball Club is a rugby union club representing the town of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Rugby was first played in Kidwelly around 1880, though as is usual within early Welsh rugby history, no written evidence exists to give an exact year of formation...

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In 2003, Toronto Welsh RFC combined with a more recently formed senior men's club (UToronto RFC) based loosely around the downtown campus in Toronto to form a new team, the Toronto Dragons RFC. The University of Toronto has a separate team playing in the Ontario University leagues, the Varsity Blues

Varsity Blues

The Varsity Blues is the name for the intercollegiate sports program at the University of Toronto. Its 26 athletic teams regularly participate in competitions held by Ontario University Athletics and Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The Varsity Blues traces its founding to 1877, with the formation...

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