Our History

The CIAC's were formed in 1946 by a group of young men living in Cardiff Docks area.

Loudon Square Park, in the middle of the "docks' or as it was known Tiger Bay, was the setting for an impromptu meeting sometime during the summer. The group talked about forming a Sports Club and eventually chose Rugby as the game to play. The first game was played in the September of that year following the acquisition of a set of Jersey's and a ball. The rugby ball was obtained by swapping it for a football with Currans Sports Club and the Jerseys had originally belonged to a previous docklands rubgy club the Loudons also known as the Cardiff All Blacks. During the weeks leading up to the first game a lot of hard work was put in by many of those who would form the first committee and the potential players. The choice of a suitable name was deemed to be very important. The intent to express the aim of the club, to embrace all races and religions, reflecting the make up of the local population, and prove that all peoples can live together in harmony as one community.

Approaching sixty years later this is still our collective view and experience.

"Theres an old saying" says Franklin Paris, coach of the mini section and former CIACs player himself, "that the only nationality never to have played for the CIACs is an eskimo and its a standing joke that if anybody finds one they should point him in our direction. We'd have the whole shebang then"

In its first 50 years the club was victorious in 38 competitions, and the "invincible' side of 1951-52, which won every single one of it's 32 games, produced one of the most famous rugby players of all time.

Billy Boston was born in the docks to a West African mother and an Irish father, and in a career spanning 17 years he turned out regularly for Great Britain and scored 571 tries. It's a figure unsurpassed by any other British player, but he was not the only former CIAC to win international honours, even if not as many members of the team represented their countries as was sometimes thought.

"The name Cardiff Internationals came up because there were so many different nationalities," explains Philip John, club captain for a record 10 years. "But sometimes the opposition thought we were actually international players from the Cardiff City team."

The misunderstanding resulted in some hard games against teams with genuine internationals, though the CIACS always did themselves proud. In the showers after one such game the Irish stand-off was heard to say that the two CIAC forwards had given him a harder game that any full international !!