North Wales Crusaders

North Wales Crusaders

Club information
Full name	North Wales Crusaders Rugby League Football Club
Short name	Crusaders
Website	www.crusadersrfl.com
Colours
Founded	2011
Current details
Ground(s)	2012–present Racecourse Ground (15,500-with Kop)
Competition	Championship 1

North Wales Crusaders (Welsh: Croesgadwyr Gogledd Cymru Rygbi'r Gynghrair) are a professional rugby league club to be based in Wrexham, Wales. The successors to the former Super League club Crusaders Rugby League, they will play in the Championship 1 competition starting in the 2012 season. They will play their home games at Racecourse Ground.

The club was founded in 2011 following the folding of Crusaders Rugby League, who had played in the Rugby Football League competitions for six years. They will be led by new ownership, and officially joined Championship 1, the third tier of rugby league in the United Kingdom, on 11 October 2011. Their name, which continues the Crusaders branding, was selected in a fan contest.^[1][2]

History

2011

Crusaders were offered a position in the Co-operative Championship 1 for the 2012 season by the RFL with their request to join at Co-operative Championship level having been turned down; a rival bid from Wrexham-based Glyndwr Chargers was withdrawn.

Symbols

The club have revealed a new logo ready for use in the 2011 season. The badge, inspired by the Prince of Wales's feathers, has three white feathers adorning the centre of a disc with the Flag of St David on. To the left and right of the feathers, the words "Rugby" and "League" appear on the disc. Beneath the feathers is written "Crusaders".

• 

  2011

Stadiums

The Racecourse Ground Stadium, Wrexham

The Racecourse

Main article: Racecourse Ground

The Racecourse Ground is located in Wrexham in North Wales and is the official home of the Crusaders and where most matches are played. The club moved to the ground in 2010, in time for the start of the Super League XV season. The first Crusaders match ever played there was against Leeds Rhinos on 29 January 2010, and that match is also the highest attendance for a Crusaders match played in Wrexham. With a capacity of 15,500 it is the largest ground in North Wales, the fifth largest in the whole of Wales, and the seventh largest in Super League. It was first built in 1807 and first played host to Wrexham's "Town Purse" horse race.^[3] Crowd trouble stopped the horse racing and in 1872 it became home to Wrexham Football Club with the club now owning the ground.^[4][5][6] The Wales national rugby league team have played there. The ground has four stands: The Mold Road Stand, The Eric Roberts Stand, The Kop and The Yale.

2012 squad

Main article: Crusaders Rugby League players

2012 Crusaders squad
First team squad								Coaching staff
1 - FB 2 - WG 3 - CE 4 5 - WG 6 - SO 7 - SH 8 - PR 9 - HK 10 - PR 11 (c) - SR 12 - SR 13 - LF								Assistant coach Source:[7] Legend: (c) Captain (vc) Vice captain

2012 Transfers

2012 Ins

No In	Name	Moved From	Contract Length
1st
2nd

2012 Outs

No Out	Name	Moved To	Contract Length
1st	Clinton Schifcofske	Retiring
2nd	Vince Mellars	Wakefield Wildcats	3 Years
3rd	Michael Witt	Harlequins RL	3 Years
4th	Jarrod Sammut	Bradford Bulls	1 Year
5th	Ryan O'Hara	Hull KR	2 Years
6th	Hep Cahill	Widnes Vikings	3 Years
7th	Frank Winterstein	Widnes Vikings	2 Years
8th	Jordan James	Salford City Reds	2 Years
9th	Lloyd White	Widnes Vikings	3 Years
10th	Jason Chan	Huddersfield Giants	3 Years
11th	Richard Moore	Leeds Rhinos	3 Years
12th	Rhys Hanbury	Widnes Vikings	2 Years
13th	Stuart Reardon	AS Carcassonne	1 Year
14th	Mark Bryant	Harlequins RL	2 Years
15th	Lincoln Withers	Hull KR	2 Years
16th	Elliot Kear	Bradford Bulls	3 Years
17th	Tony Martin	Hull FC	1 Years
18th	Paul Johnson	Retiring
19th	Lee Williams	Neath RUFC	2 Years
20th	Gareth Thomas	Retiring

Internationals

A total of 18 players have won caps with the Wales national rugby league team whilst playing for the Crusaders. A further two players have been capped by other countries.

Coaches

Name	Nat	Tenure	Matches Won	%	SL Won	%	NL1 Won	%	NL2 Won	%	Chall. Cup Won	%	Champ. Cup Won	%
[[ ]]		November 2011 - present	0/0	0	0/0	0	0/0	0	0/0	0	0/0	0	0/0	0

^[8]

Honours

References

1. ^ http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/11/10/11/RUGBYL_Crusaders.html&BID=480
2. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/15262211.stm
3. ^ BBC News - Old Stadium Claims World Record Retrieved on 5 September 2010.
4. ^ Wrexham FC - The Racecourse Retrieved on 5 September 2010.
5. ^ Wales Directory - The Racecourse Retrieved on 5 September 2010.
6. ^ The Racecourse Wrexham - About Us Retrieved on 6 September 2010.
7. ^ http://www.crusadersrfl.com/team.php?id=11
8. ^ Last updated on 1 November 2011.

See also

• Celtic Warriors
• Wales national rugby league team
• Rugby League in Wales
• Rugby League Conference
• Rugby League National Leagues

External links

• Crusaders official website
• Crusaders announcement
• Save the Cru petition