South Wales Warriors keep American Football flag flying in Wales

The South Wales Warriors are hoping to tap into the renewed interest in American Football in Wales.

Wales already has a series of historic links to the NFL: Welsh rugby international full-back Paul Thorburn came to the attention of the NFL following a 70-yard monster conversion against Scotland in the Six Nations in 1986. Keen to maintain his status as an amateur, he signed as a trialist for the Los Angeles Rams for one match against the Denver Broncos at Wembley Stadium in August 1987.

Wales is hoping to profit from the boom in interest in the NFL. The 2022 Super Bowl begins in September and, according to the latest odds on Oddschecker, the Buffalo Bills are favourites to win at 15/2, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers second-favourites at 8/1.

As far as Wales is concerned, the South Wales Warriors, based in Llanharan, are the country’s sole representative in the BAFA National Leagues, while there are 57 English teams and nine from Scotland. The Warriors are the only fully-kitted American Football team in the BAFA National Leagues and play in the BAFANL Division One, the second tier, in SFC 1 West against teams such as Hertfordshire Cheetahs and Portsmouth Dreadnoughts.

It is hoped that the renewed interest in gridiron football in Wales will lead to a return to the levels of popularity the sport enjoyed in the 1980s. In the heyday of American Football in Wales, the Cardiff Tigers were founded in 1985 as interest in the sport boomed in the capital. The Cardiff Mets formed soon after and the sport eventually spread to other areas of Wales, leading to the formation of the Swansea Dragons and Newport Mustangs.

There are now plenty of opportunities for Welsh NFL fans to follow the sport as American Football grows in popularity, with Super Bowl parties becoming a firm fixture in homes across the country. The reawakened interest is likely to continue to grow after the NFL announced that the Green Bay Packers will play in London in the 2022 season, which means that all NFL franchises will have played a home fixture in the capital. The New Orleans Saints and the Jacksonville Jaguars will also play in London.

This has given renewed hope that the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, the home of Welsh rugby, will one day have the chance of staging an NFL fixture in Wales. The 74,500-capacity stadium is standing by should the NFL decide to hold an American Football fixture outside London. The NFL will be holding a regular-season game in Germany this year and it is hoped this expansion of the game in Europe could lead to a fixture in Wales.

https://twitter.com/principalitysta/status/1495014840775155716

On the topic of hosting a game in Cardiff, NFL UK said: “We have spoken in the past to the WRU about staging games in Cardiff and are aware of its world-class stadium and the support we could expect from the city. There are no current plans to stage a game in Cardiff, but it remains a viable option should we decide to expand beyond London.”

American Football is growing in popularity again in Wales, as the NFL attracts increasing numbers of new fans and the hope remains that we will see the first NFL game played at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in the future.