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Neath-Swansea Ospreys

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Welsh Rugby Regions 2003

The Neath-Swansea Ospreys are a regional Rugby Union team from Wales, playing in the Celtic League and European Rugby Cup/European Rugby Shield.

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Club History

The Ospreys are one of the five original regions of the Welsh Regional Rugby Era. The club came into being in the summer of 2003 when the WRU elected to reduce the current top tier of Welsh Proffesional Rugby from nine clubs into five regions, effectively mirroring the successful formats in Ireland and the Southern Hemisphere countries of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The Ospreys represent the whole of the Neath and Swansea areas, also encompassing Port Talbot and Aberavon. They were created by merging the area's two most successful clubs - Neath RFC and Swansea RFC - who still retain ownership of the club on a 50:50 basis.

In the summer of 2004, due to the liquidation of the Celtic Warriors region, Neath-Swansea Ospreys have had their borders extended to also cover much of the Bridgend, Ogmore and Vale of Glamorgan areas to the east. However, for logistical reasons, it was decided that no "home" games would be played at Bridgend's Brewery Field.

After initial teething problems, which were inevitable given the storied historical rivalry between the two clubs, the Ospreys have settled down to becomes Wales' only true merged regional team thanks to the demise of the Celtic Warriors. Presented with initially one of the weaker squads (especially in depth) they have performed admirably in their first year, earning by right a place in the 2004/05 European Rugby Cup

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Home Ground

The Ospreys currently share their home games between Swansea's St.Helens ground (home of Swansea RFC) and Neath's The Gnoll ground (home of Neath RFC).

However they plan to move into the newly developed 20,000 seater White Rock Stadium in Swansea once work is completed in 2005.

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