RUGBY: Wales fans can hand £2 to their local club every time they buy an autumn ticket

A new WRU scheme lets supporters pick any club in Wales to receive £2 from each ticket bought for this autumn's internationals — and Lions back row Jac Morgan says the grassroots clubs of the Swansea Valleys are where it all begins.

Kit Peters
4 Min Read
Wales rugby player Jac Morgan running with the ball in a red number 8 shirt during an international.
Jac Morgan in action for Wales at the Principality Stadium. Image: WRU/Huw Evans Agency

Welsh rugby fans buying tickets for this autumn’s internationals can now send £2 from every ticket straight to their local grassroots club.

The Welsh Rugby Union’s new Club Commission Scheme lets supporters choose any club in Wales to receive the money when they buy through the WRU’s ticketing site.

It means a slice of matchday spending at the Principality Stadium flows back to the clubhouses, pitches and volunteers that keep the community game going.

Fans pick their chosen club before buying, with the £2 going towards facilities, growing participation and supporting local teams.

Clubs across the Swansea Valleys and beyond stand to benefit, with the WRU naming the likes of Waunarlwydd, Ystradgynlais and Pencoed among those fans can back.

Young children playing junior rugby on a grass pitch, contesting the ball.
Jac Morgan as a child (Image: Jac Morgan’s Family

For Wales and British and Irish Lions back row Jac Morgan, the scheme is a chance to repay the clubs that shaped him.

Morgan grew up in Brynamman, where his earliest rugby memories were watching his father and uncle play and messing about with a ball behind the posts.

With no team his age in the village, his first proper junior club was nearby Cwmtwrch, where he played for close to a decade before returning to Brynamman for youth and senior rugby.

“I loved playing juniors at Cwmtwrch, growing up there with the boys and with all the coaches,” he said.

He said the volunteers behind the scenes had been “massive,” and that the friends and support network he found there had stayed with him ever since.

Morgan, who has captained his country and toured with the Lions, said community clubs were where almost every player in the Wales squad had started out.

“Without the local clubs, without that giving us the platform, our rugby journeys might not start,” he said.

He described the scheme as a chance for supporters to give something back while backing Wales this autumn.

WRU community director Geraint John said grassroots rugby was crucial to the future of the game, developing the players, coaches, referees and volunteers who sustain it.

He said the scheme made sure the support generated by the national team travelled back into local communities, “showing how every club matters.”

Wales’ most-capped player in the current squad, Tomos Williams, said local clubs were where most players started and had been important throughout his career.

The funding stream is being launched ahead of the new Nations Championship, the revamped global tournament that brings southern hemisphere sides north each autumn.

Wales host Japan on 7 November, New Zealand on 14 November and Australia on 21 November at the Principality Stadium, with tickets on sale through the WRU.

Morgan, a standout for the Ospreys before his summer departure, has been one of the region’s most familiar faces — and a reminder that the path to a Wales shirt often starts on a village pitch.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.


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Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.
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