Wales Rugby League

In 1907, the Welsh Northern Union was formed in Wrexham, but the Northern Union refused it affiliation as they wanted the body located in the South of Wales, which is the heartland of Welsh rugby union, and the WNU soon folded. In 1926, the newly renamed RFL formed a Welsh commission in an attempt to convert rugby union clubs to rugby league. The new Wales Rugby League board was formed in 1995 and recognised at that time as the governing body of rugby league in Wales by the Rugby Football League, the British Amateur Rugby League Association and the Welsh Sports Council. It employed its first professional chairman, Mark Rowley, in 2006. Wales became the 12th full member of the Rugby League International Federation following a meeting of the Federation board in Melbourne in May 2010. We were also granted automatic qualification to the 2013 World Cup which will take place in England and Wales. Previously, full international membership has gone to Great Britain but since the start of 2008, when Great Britain was permanently split into four nations for full test international purposes, that spot was given to England. Now Wales have taken their rightful place in the elite organisational structure of world rugby league.