Llandovery RFC () is a Welsh rugby union club based in Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The club is an inaugural member of the Welsh Rugby Union, currently play in the Welsh Premier Division and is a feeder club for the Scarlets, a Pro14 club. Llandovery won the Premier Division during the 2022–23 season, defeating reigning champions Cardiff RFC in the final.
Early history
Prior to 1878 written evidence exists of a Llandovery rugby team, though in these reports it is not clear if this was a town or college team. On 22 February 1878 a report in the Carmarthen Journal refers to a rugby game between 'Llandovery' and other local teams but these were specifically named as college teams while Llandovery was not. In 1879 Llandovery College, played their first recognised official match against Christ College, Brecon. This was a college and not a town side as the match report indicated it was the first time the two schools had met. are nowadays recognised as an inaugural member of the Welsh Rugby Union at a meeting held at the on 12 March 1881 in the Castle Hotel, Neath. It is not certain however whether C. P. Lewis, a master at the college was representing the town as well as the college. In 1894, Llandovery was one of ten clubs who became affiliated to the Welsh Rugby Union, but gave up this status in 1910.
Inter-war period
Rugby was not played in Llandovery from 1914 to 1919, during the Great War, but commenced again in 1920 and the club continued until 1935, but due to a lack of fixtures ceased to function in that year.
Post World War II
In November 1948 Llandovery RFC officially reformed, and began laying down the foundations that would give it future stability. Llandovery RFC moved their club headquarters to the White Hall and in 1956 the town's Improvement Committee purchased Barlow's Field which was levelled and reseeded. In the subsequent two years improvements included the building of changing rooms. In 1956 Llandovery RFC reapplied for membership to the WRU which was granted in 1957.
The nickname The Drovers was coined by rugby journalist Huw S Thomas
Llandovery's gradual rise from the lower divisions of the West Wales Rugby Union to Welsh Premiership status over the last 40 years has owed much to the sound methods and tactical acumen of a number of coaches.
Honour is due to “Jock Watkins” – the coach when Llandover y beat Pontypridd in the WRU Cup back in 1984 - Stan Liptrot, Geri Davies, Iestyn Thomas, Geraint Williams, ex-Wales flanker Rob Appleyard, Lyndon Lewis and latterly Euros Evans.
Watkins, a former Pontypridd hooker masterminded the defeat of his old club in the now famous 1984 Schweppes Cup, Liptrot brought professionalism and innovative ideas from his time as England U21 coach and Geri Davies made the pack into a fighting, bruising but disciplined unit, befitting of a high ranking Army officer
Williams came with bright attacking ideas from his time at Newbridge, Appleyard introduced innovative methods of preparation and coaching and Lewis used his time as a teacher in Swansea to bring in influential players such as James Garland and Richard Brooks. But other schoolmasters in Iestyn Thomas and Euros Evans – both hookers - stand out, not just because they both won the WRU Cup as coaches but because of their significant influence in persuading so many of their former pupils to join the club.
This was crucial once the game went professional in 1995 after which clubs – even lower league clubs - started to sign players from outside their own immediate area.
Where once many clubs relied on home produced players, educated at local schools, they now swept the net wider in an effort to attract talented players and climb up the new league structures introduced in 1990.
Llandovery's success in qualifying for the new Heineken Leagues in 1990 was owed largely to the efforts of former pupils of Ysgol Pantycelyn, a very talented and large bunch of players who happened to come together at the right time for the club.
That success, strange enough, was down not as much to the school but to the coaching of Llandovery RFC pair of Bernard Jones and Davy George Davies who had attended WRU coaching courses under the crusading WRU Coaching Organiser Ray Williams.
It was they who formed an U15 side in 1972 - the first age group side in the club's history - out of which grew a Youth side that produced some fine players through the 1970s and 1980s.
The club's proudest moment in that period was the defeat of Pontypridd in the 1984 Schweppes Cup second round with a side of players almost all born and bred in the Llandovery area, coached by Jock Watkins.