Our History

In the summer of 1984 an explosion took place in the changing rooms when the hot water system blew up which completely demolished the premises, at the time the only thing that we could be grateful for, was that because it happened at about 10 O’clock one morning, that nobody was injured. The following season was spent changing in portable changing rooms in the car park of the club that were supplied by way of the insurance. During that season numerous plans were drawn up for new changing facilities which ranged from rebuilding on the old site to having an extension built onto the main club, although these plans were not to the extreme it was to proved that the insurance cover would not meet these requirements.

This resulted in a bit of “déjà vu” taking place, where as back in the fifties it was a nissen hut that was seen and purchased, this time it was an 800 square foot poultry shed that was seen advertised in the Western Mail somewhere near Bridgend for £500. A car load of committee men were quickly dispatched down the M 4 to view this timber building and with just one look each man was looking at one another with approving glances and nods of the head, so for the second time in 30 years a shed was to be purchased and converted into use as dressing rooms. A lorry was borrowed from a Vice President and a small workforce were dispatched to dismantle this shed and transfer to Trinant. It was quickly rebuilt on the site of the old changing rooms and with a new tin roof purchased from the steelworks in Ebbw Vale was to last for the next ten years.

As the Twentieth Century was drawing to a close another disaster was to strike the changing rooms, when in the early hours of Saturday January 24th 1998 they burnt down. Nathan Tovey who worked for the electric company SWALEC received a phone call from his employers at 6 O’Clock in the morning telling him that he had to go to Trinant Rugby Club to make the electrics safe as there had been a fire there, he was then asked did he know where this is. His reply was “I think so, I’m the Captain”. Our game that afternoon was at home against the Cardiff side Llandaff, the only way that this fixture could be fulfilled was to ring them and ask could we reverse the fixture and then borrow kit off them, this they agreed to with no hesitation.

Local business man and Vice President Paul Robinson came to the rescue regarding kit but the main problem was getting somewhere to change. We had about a month to rectify this problem as the International programme was about to start which meant that there would be no club games on International match days and what games we had in the next few weeks were away, this gave us a month to get something sorted out.

On the premises of the Sports and Social Club there was a brick building that had been in use as a “Betting Shop” unfortunately it was in a poor state of disrepair due to vandalism but on inspection it was seen that this building could be utilised and so it was. With the removal and rebuilding of a couple of internal walls, a new external doorway fitted, a complete rewire of the electrics and a few showers installed, two small changing rooms were ready for our first game a month after the fire. These small and cramped conditions had to suffice for the remainder of the season and also for the 1998-1999 season while the insurance claim on the old building was processed. Plans were drawn up to extend onto this building making it twice the size it was and during the close season work started, resulting in a brand new changing room being ready for the 1999-2000 season.

The new century opened with the club full of optimism for the future, we had brand new brick built dressing rooms, young players such as Jamie Lyons, Ryan Jones & Adam Rogers had joined the club gaining experience playing alongside the likes of old stalwarts Gavin Rogers, Scott Evans, Paul Jones, Alan Jones & Robert Rees.

This mixture of Youth and old coupled together with the experienced players that we had, who were in their mid twenties to early thirties, was to prove successful in us again winning promotion in the 2003-04 season when we were crowned Champions of Division 5 East. The only disappointment that season was that our league campaign was not 100% it read :- Played 22 Won 21 Lost 1. The game which was lost was away to Nantyglo, when leading by 9 points to 8 with only seconds remaining we gave away a penalty which was converted by the home side making the final score 11 - 9 in Nantyglo‘s favour.

We also achieved in 2003-04 one of our best season’s in Cup competitions, in the 2nd round of the Welsh Cup we were drawn away to Penclawdd who were a Division 3 West side and with the score being 16 points each after 80 minutes scored the only try in extra time to come away victors by 21 points to 16. In the next round we only had to travel across the Ebbw Valley to Brynithel who were a Division 2 side. With us leading by the odd point deep into injury time, Brynithel mounted one last ditch attempt and were relieved to get a match winning try.

Also that season we played in the semi-final of the Ben Francis Cup, where we met Division 3 East side Blaina on neutral territory in Blackwood. This time it was us who were trailing as the game entered injury time by 14 - 13 when Blaina scored a try to increase their lead. Immediately from the restart we scored a try in the right hand corner through wing forward Jason Jones, Jamie Lyons conversion attempt hit the box shaped cross bar and rebounded the wrong way for us, making the final score Blaina 19 Trinant 18. The conversion attempt lead to a lot of discussion that night with both sets of supporters convinced that had the cross bar been of the round type the kick would have probably bounced over.