Bargoed

Tom James arrived at Bargoed Park in 2024. That is the club's habit: it went unbeaten for 55 straight games across the 2004–05 season, a run that earned Rugby World Magazine's UK Team of the Year award and a promotion nobody in the third tier could then dispute.

The club dates to 1882, long before the Welsh Championship existed to contain it. When that competition formed in 2012, Bargoed were among its founding members, and they have collected the WRU Championship (East) four times since — 2005, 2014–15, 2021–22 and 2023–24. The last of those came with a double: the Admiral Championship League and the WRU National Championship Cup, sealed by a 65-12 defeat of Ystrad Rhondda in the Cup final at the Principality Stadium. That result carried them up to the Super Rygbi Cymru, rugby's second tier in Wales.

None of it means as much locally as the fixture with Bedwas RFC, a derby fought for bragging rights within the county borough rather than for anything in the league table. Pontypridd and Merthyr provide the away days that matter beyond it.

The name that outlasts any single promotion is Darren Humphries, who made 450 appearances across 22 years at the club.