Welsh national league side Holyhead RFC made a headline-grabbing start to their season in Saturday - but for all the wrong reasons.
The Western Mail reports that the Swalec Division 3 North side slumped to a 181-0 defeat to Llanidloes - a result that the newspaper claims is the biggest national league or cup defeat in UK rugby history. Llanidloes scored 29 tries - helped by the fact that Holyhead fielded only 11 players - a fact club chairman Emyr Williams attributed to socialising the night before the game.
"There will be a few hard questions asked of the players who didn't run up for the trip to Llanidloes," said Williams. "The bus left the club with only 11 players on board and although a few others turned up by car we played most of the game with between 11-13 players."
He added: "At least there is only one way we can go after a defeat like that - up!"
Llanidloes chairman Huw Jenkins said: "There was a small dispute between our scorer and the referee as to what the actual score was in the end. Our man thought there was at least another try and the final score should have been 189-0. But we won't quibble with the official verdict of 181-0. We feel disappointed for Holyhead and it cost us a fortune in beer to send them on their way with a bit of a smile on their faces."