In 1875, the South Wales Football Club was formed and began arranging matches with players from varying clubs in South Wales, its main intention was to play rugby matches with teams in the west of England.
[3] In 1878 the South Wales team played a fixture with Monmouthshire at Sophia Gardens,[4] one of the earliest games in Wales played with teams made up of invited players, rather than club sides.
[5] In 1888 the New Zealand Natives toured Britain, and played several matches against representative counties, but all of them in England.
Glamorgan County were chosen as one of four Welsh clubs, along with the Wales national team to host New Zealand.
[8] Unsurprisingly Glamorgan lost, but the 9–0 score line was the result of a close game.