Based in Cardiff , the team play at Cardiff Arms Park. Cardiff have provided more players to the Welsh national side and British and Irish Lions than any other Welsh club.
They are one of a small number of clubs to have beaten the three major Southern Hemisphere international sides. South Africa , [ 9 ] New Zealand , [ 10 ] and Australia. The latter have been defeated by Cardiff on six occasions. Cardiff most recently made the knockout stages of the European Rugby Champions Cup in Between and , they also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup and won the title, beating Gloucester at Twickenham.
The club also runs one of the five Welsh rugby academies, age group teams and the semi professional Cardiff RFC side, affectionately nicknamed "The Rags", [ 11 ] which competes in Super Rygbi Cymru. The first reliably recorded Rugby club in Cardiff were Tredegarville, [ 7 ] who began playing around In , Cardiff beat Llanelli to win the South Wales Challenge Cup, though the tournament was scrapped soon after due to persistent crowd trouble.
In under Frank Hancock , Cardiff began playing with seven backs and eight forwards and perfected what was known at the time as "the passing game". Hancock's methods for the first time utilised the full width of the pitch and clever timing of passes to make use of overlaps. He banned his players from kicking penalties and drop goals. For the whole of the β86 season, Cardiff would only score through tries and conversions. They won all but one game all season.
Crowds flocked to the Arms Park and the Cardiff style of play helped make rugby football hugely popular throughout the city and surrounding areas. Giving the club a huge well of talent on which to draw from. These innovations eventually spread throughout the rugby world and in earned the club a place in the World Rugby Hall of Fame , [ 14 ] one of only three clubs to have this honour.
