Welsh rugby club turn disaster into triumph under former Wales international

Yahoo

05-03-2025

A Welsh rugby club has bounced back from a devastating flood to put themselves one step away from cup glory.
In November, Cross Keys RFC was left submerged in over six feet of water after the River Ebbw breached its banks during Storm Bert, with the flooding leaving flooring, electrical goods and training equipment at the club damaged. The devastating setback came less than five years after the club was badly affected by floods during Storm Dennis in 2020.
With their pitch and facilities left under water, the club had no choice but to shut for weeks before the hard work of volunteers allowed them to reopen. But they have spent much of the season training elsewhere, using other club's pitches and cancelling home fixtures as they battled to overcome the setback.
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Against the odds, less than four months later the club is almost completely back to normal with the team now through to the final of the Premiership Cup. A thrilling semi-final clash with Merthyr RFC saw Keys triumph in dramatic circumstances, as they sealed a 36-31 victory in extra-time.
While Merthyr had won convincingly when the two sides met at the start of the season, a courageous performance from Keys saw them come from 14 points down to leave the scores tied at 26-26 after 80 minutes. With an extra 20 minutes then played, a try from Ralph Miller and two successful Adam Tetley kicks helped to secure a famous win.
Keys - who are led by head coach Chris James and former Wales international Morgan Stoddart as director of rugby - will now face Pontypridd in the final at the Principality Stadium on April 5, 11 years after they met in the same fixture. The two sides also did battle in the final in 2012, with Keys victorious on that occasion, and club secretary Angie Prangell admits another cup win would be a "fairytale ending" for the team after a challenging season.
"We played Merthyr at the start of the season and we were absolutely annihilated," she said as she recounted the weekend's thrilling semi-final win. "They put 80-odd points on us. So they were obviously the favourites going in to the game, they had beaten teams left, right and centre. But the confidence of our players has been building and building and they just didn't give up.
"It was the most amazing game I've seen in such a long time and for the neutral, it must have been fantastic. Our boys dug so deep and they got the win. I couldn't be more proud of them, and the coaching staff have been absolutely fantastic too.
"If we were to win it, it would be an absolute fairytale ending to the season. We're a little village - we always say we've only got one set of traffic lights in Cross Keys. So winning the cup would be a real fairytale, especially after all of this."
Angie admits that the club would not have been able to recover from the "unbelievable" flooding in the way it has without the efforts of volunteers and the generosity of other clubs. Having been "wiped out" by what happened, those at the club are thankful for all the support they've received.
"You leave the club on a Saturday night and you come back on the Sunday morning and it's under water," she said as she recalled the scale of the flooding. "It was unbelievable.
"We obviously had to close the club down for nearly three weeks but managed to get it up and running again with the help of volunteers. We still have a few little things to do, but if you didn't know about the flooding, you wouldn't know now. We've done a massive job on it, and all thanks to the volunteers.
"The field was awful, it was obviously full of mud and silt but you also get things like twigs and bits of plastic on there. In fact, you wouldn't believe what was on there. So obviously we couldn't train or play it and we had to find alternative training grounds and cancel games. But the whole thing just totally wipes you out.
"We played Newbridge at the end of December and they gave us the whole of their gate money which was absolutely tremendous," Angie added. "Neath RFC also had a bucket collection for us not long after the flood too. We used Risca's pitch, they helped us out. So the generosity of other clubs, we can't fault it."
Meanwhile, eight-cap international Stoddart admits that his side go into next month's final as the underdogs against top-of-the-table Pontypridd. But he knows they will be determined to go all the way, having battled against the odds throughout the season.
"The flooding was crazy, and it's happened twice in five years now," he said. "It was a lot of hassle and organising for the coaches, with players training at different venues and moving around. So, from a rugby side, it was difficult but for the volunteers and the committee and Angie and everyone else, it was a lot more difficult because they had to deal with the flooding first hand.
"Myself and the coaches have told the boys not to make excuses about an extra half an hour of travel or whatever, and to just concentrate on what we need to do and trying to win," Stoddart added. "We've done great this year, the boys and coaches have been brilliant.
"They have been working hard for months to get something out of the season and hopefully we will do now we're through to the final. Ponty will probably be huge favourites to beat us , but the boys just need to believe they can do it like they did in the semis. If we play our best game, then I think we'll have a chance."