Cross Keys

Crosskeys sits in the Ebbw valley in Caerphilly county borough.

That river has not always been kind to it. Cross Keys still reached the final of the WRU Admiral Premiership Cup the following season, losing out as runners-up in 2025.

The club has needed that kind of resilience before. In 1926, with the club facing financial collapse, the Welsh Rugby Union turned down a loan but instead arranged an exhibition match against the Welsh national side at Pandy Park. Cross Keys won it 13–8.

Two Welsh Club Championships, in 1922 and 1936, sit at the top of the honours list, alongside Division One titles in the 1990s and a Swalec Cup won in 2012, when Cross Keys beat Pontypridd at the Millennium Stadium. The name most associated with the club now is Taulupe Faletau, capped 109 times for Wales and a British & Irish Lion, who came through here. Decades earlier, Russell Taylor toured with the 1938 Lions while still playing for Cross Keys, the only man to do so from the club.