Every major touring team to visit Wales has graced the turf of Rodney Parade, and all of them had their colours lowered in the twentieth century by a side who, in 1951, played in the match at Cardiff that attracted what was, then, a world record crowd of 48,500 for a rugby union match between two clubs.
In addition to matches against all the major national sides a highlight of the Newport season was the annual match against the Barbarians, ensuring that the Newport fans had a regular diet of world class players to supplement the Welsh internationals who were a common feature of the 'Black and Ambers'.
1874-1900:
- Founded in Sept 1874 and founder members of WRU.
- Invincible for first 4 years.
- Invincible in 1891/2.
- First ever Welsh Club Champions in 1895 and won again in 1896.
- Won South Wales Cup 5 times and R/U twice in 10 seasons.
- Contributed more internationals to Welsh team than any other club.
- Newport player scored Wales’ first ever try.
- Provided 4 Welsh captains.
- First ever Anglo-Welsh fixture with Blackheath.
1900-1914:
- Played all the visiting touring sides.
- First club to defeat Springboks in 1912.
- Welsh Club Champions 1903,1910,1912.
- Golden era of Vile, Martin, Partridge, Plummer, Smythe, Skrimshaw etc.
- Provide 5 Welsh captains.
- Provided 11 British Lions including 1 captain.
- Provided 1 player who played for SA vs British Lions.
1919-1939:
- Welsh Club Champions 1920,1923.
- Provided 5 Welsh, 1 English and 1 Irish captains.
- Provided 6 British Lions.
- Golden era of Wetter, Uzzell, Griffiths, Morley, Travers etc.
1945-2003 :
- Golden era of Jones, Burnett, Thomas, Meredith, Price, Watkins, Jarrett etc.
- Beat Australia 1957, NZ 1963, SA 1969, Tonga 1974.
- Welsh Club Champions 1951, 1956, 1962, 1969.
- Won Welsh Merit Table and Anglo-Welsh Merit Table.
- Provided 7 Welsh, 1 Czech Rep, 2 Canadian, 1 Fijian captains.
- Provided 15 British Lions.
- Introduced 7’s to Wales and won Snellings 10 times and R/U 9 times.
- One of pioneers of floodlights in Wales.
- Introduced squad systems / players playing on rota in Wales.
- Won Welsh Cup twice, R/U 3 times.
- Welsh Premier League R/U – twice.
....to date have supplied nearly 150 Welsh players and players to England, Scotland, Ireland, SA, Czech Rep, Canada, Fiji as well as ca 80 Barbarians.
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