A chance meeting between retired youth team coach Jeffrey Chandler and three of his old players in 2005 and the talk of returning to rugby through a local club in Newport or setting up there own club was banded about and when the 2006 season came around a new team was added to the Newport & District league.
Welcome to Malpas Rugby
Malpas rugby club are the Welsh Rugby Unions youngest club and will celebrate there 10 year anniversary in the 2016 season
In the first couple of years they let a nomadic existence, starting off at Malpas cricket club which they shared with Malpas football club, the rugby club adopting the football clubs colours of Black & Red and using the local comprehensive schools pitch up until the 2008 season when due to a new school being built on there rugby pitch they had to move across the other side of Newport to Shaftesbury park to play there home games. They continued at Shaftesbury park until season 2010 when they moved to the civil service club in Newport and used the local pitch, but as always with the early years the future was uncertain and when the civil service club closed in 2011 they moved back short term to Malpas cricket club before eventually ending up at there current and hopefully long term base The Three Horseshoes pub.
Remarkably during this time Malpas had a more than impressive Newport & District league record
06 Last
07 Last but one
08 Mid table
09 League Winners
10 League Winners
2011 season saw Malpas gain there Welsh Rugby Union membership which saw them start in WRU Swalec league division 6 East.
It was during this time that the local higher league teams came calling and with the offer of higher grade rugby and two thirds of the previous 2 seasons league winning squad left the club.
This saw player coaches Mark Cox & Terry Powell enter the new season with only 12 registered players and after an urgent recruitment drive which saw them with a squad of 18 players ranging from retired players, ex footballers and people who had never seen a rugby ball they unsurprisingly finished there first season in the Swalec leagues bottom of the league.
The 2012 season wasn’t any better with training numbers dropping to 4 or 5 the talk was to drop out of the WRU leagues and go back to the Newport & district leagues, but after a lot of talk, a bit of soul searching and a few meetings between players and gradually the numbers training started to get better even if the results on the pitch didn’t
Season 2013 and Malpas finally had turned the corner numbers training were up they were now competing in the WRU Swalec South East Division 6
Though results were not going there way performances were getting better and a run in the Newport & District cup which saw them lose in the semi final to the eventual winners Girlings Rfc gave them a more than positive outlook for the forthcoming season
Season 2014 Malpas enter with a renewed confidence and with the added extra help in the shape of Matthew Harding & Jeff Kent in the newly revamped WRU Swalec league division 3 East D
and after an opening day loss to title contenders Newport Saracens, Malpas went on to win there next two matches (This is something they have never done since joining the Swalec leagues) and currently find themselves in the upper half of the league and again in the semi final of the cup, this was achieved by gaining revenge and beating Girlings Rfc in the last round.
And in a time when clubs all over South Wales are folding, things are finally looking up for a rugby club build on sand and created over a pint in the local pub.
#Built-On-Sand
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