Our History

1990's

To most rugby followers the nineties conjured up change and professionalism as we'd never seen before. Vernon Pugh’s decision that, today we are amateurs and tomorrow professional, did no favours for small village clubs. Trebanos were never financially able to pay players, and it suffered over the years, losing good players to the paid ranks, and so it continues today. Because of its investment in junior and youth rugby a steady stream of players came through the system. Such players were, Carwyn Young, who represented Wales at Under 18, 19 & 21 levels and played for Neath, Llanelli and Aberavon,  Simon Knight, Mark Bevan, Chris Harris, Clive Warburton, Ian Gibson, Kevin Williams, Teifion Thomas, Gareth Williams, Chris Penhale who captained Trebanos three successive seasons, Kevin Penhale, Richard Thomas, Stuart Thomas, Ian Taylor, Arwel Thomas, who went on to win international caps, Reiland Davies, Steve Williams, Dafydd Thomas, Aled Rowlands, Peter Cane, Richard Preece, Rhodri Bowen, Ceri Bowen, Simon Davies, Andrew Thomas, Jason Bailey, Owen Pickerell, Hugh Pickerell, Jonathan Fuller, Ryan Phillips, Mark Evans, Robin Williams, Richard Walker, Richard Langford, Chris Davies, Bleddyn Howells, Simon Thomas, Nick Lloyd, Amer Hussein, Jamie Watkins, Chris Jones, Neil Jeremiah, Rhodri Jones, who played for Wales B, Neath, Swansea and Gwent Dragons and is the current Youth coach.  

In 1990 – 1991 season Trebanos played in section D West Wales League and finished in third position with 18 points. The league system was re-organised in 1991–1992 season and Trebanos found itself playing in Group A, finishing with 15 points (seven wins and a draw).

The league was again re-organised the following season and the club found itself playing in Division C in 1992/93 and 1993/94 seasons finishing 5th and 2nd respectively. This was to be the end of West Wales League, and the following season clubs voted for a Welsh National League to be formed.

The following photograph has been included because it shows Billy Todd, who sadly passed away, but loved Trebanos RFC and especially the Youth teams. He always called the players "Custard ****" and, in turn, it became his nickname. The players all loved him and together with John Morgan, Dai "Post" Williams and Dai Morgan, he assisted in running and supporting the Youth teams over many years. 

TREBANOS YOUTH XV 1997

Back Row: Adrian Jones (Secretary), Owen Hyatt, Timothy Young, Peter Cane, Jonathan Fuller, Alex Wharf, Emyr Williams, Paul, Kevin Penhale, Dafydd Thomas, Aled Rowlands, Steve Williams.

Middle Row: Nigel Doyle (Coach), Phil Young, Richard Preece, Andrew Thomas, John Morgan, Owen Pickrell (Captain), Billy Todd, Ryan Phillips, Dai Williams, Anthony Wheeler (Coach).

Front Row: Mark Evans, Jason Bailey, Ceri Bowen. 

In 1995 the game went professional overnight and the rush was on to pay players. Trebanos resisted paying and diverted their monies towards improving their facilities. During this time Trebanos played in Division 3 West, but by the 1996/1997 season, due to the continual re-organisation by the WRU, Trebanos found themselves in Central division and that season played Bangor, Dolgellau and Newtown. The cost of these fixtures put great financial strain on the club; it was the great WRU plan to fast track Bangor as a first class side in North Wales. We beat them at Bangor and were politely asked to leave their clubhouse at 6.30 pm, because they had a wedding party booked. On their visit to Trebanos, the Bangor players ate the meal in the clubhouse, and retired to their coach, sat there, and drank cans of beer their club had supplied; welcome to the world of professionalism!!

The game was evolving quickly towards national leagues and professionalism and in 1992/93, Trebanos RFC set up a steering committee to undertake a review of its structure and report back to the committee with recommendations. One of the recommendations the steering committee made was new changing rooms and floodlights for Trebanos Park.

The local council were unable to fund any monies for this project, and with an eye on the club's Centenary in 1997, Roy Bowen and James Hewitt undertook the project and successfully accessed monies from Sportalot and The Foundation for Sport and Art on behalf of the club.  After two years of work, the funding for this £174,000 project was in place by 1995 and work started in 1996. The new facilities were ready in July 1998, unfortunately missing the Centenary season through construction problems.

Additional funding had to be applied for, that set the completion date back by twelve months. In the 1998-1999 season both Neath and Swansea were kind enough to play at the Park to celebrate the opening of the new changing rooms, which were officially opened jointly by the club's trio of Welsh internationals: Bleddyn Bowen, Arwel Thomas, and Robert Jones, seen above receiving the keys from Mr. Idris Daniels of Tawe Builders.

More images can be found in our galeries.