From The Vaults

04 December 2023

50 Years of Stewart’s Melville College Former Pupil Club

Richard Steele reminisces about the history of and his experience with the club…

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04 December 2023

50 Years of Stewart’s Melville College Former Pupil Club

Richard Steele reminisces about the history of and his experience with the club…

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24 July 2023

The Varsity Match: A Story of Twists and Turns by Paul Chéhère

Since the beginning of rugby’s history, students have often been at the cutting edge of English rugby, contributing greatly to the development of the game in the UK...

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09 April 2023

Baa-Baas at Easter

The Barbarian Football Club was founded in 1890 by Percy "Tottie" Carpmael and became one of the most famous rugby clubs in the world...

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03 April 2023

The Story of Beromama

The earliest references to rugby matches being played in Argentina date to the 1870s but it took until 1939 for the first non-elite rugby club to be founded, in the outlying districts of the city of Buenos Aires...

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28 March 2023

Gloucester Rugby: The Players

Gloucester Rugby Heritage, a non-profit charity run by volunteers, has been producing a series of large format books to record the history of the Gloucester Club. The fourth in the series, “Gloucester Rugby: The Players” has been published recently...

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12 December 2022

Rugby in the Middle East by Richard Thom

Rugby in the Middle East was a surprising phenomenon. Its beginnings from the sand pitches for which it is famed now stand as a testament to the spirit and ingenuity of the players that embodies the game in this region...

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05 December 2022

New Zealand Rugby Records

The Rugby Almanack of New Zealand was first published in 1935 containing details of New Zealand first class rugby matches from the previous year. The Almanack has continued to be issued ever since then covering every subsequent season of New Zealand rugby...

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28 November 2022

A 19th century club match

One of the joys of researching in a museum is finding an item that has perhaps not been touched or looked at for a very long time. Such an item in the collection of the World Rugby Museum is the programme for a rugby match between Cambridge University and Blackheath played 125 years ago at the University Ground in Grange Road on Saturday 20 November 1897...

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04 November 2022

The Birth of Championship Rugby in Argentina

In the year 1899, the first club rugby championship was played in Argentina. This article by Eduardo García Sáenz is a tribute to the players, their families, and their clubs, for the vision put into action, in 1899...

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08 August 2022

An English club knock-out competition at last!

It remains surprising that it took a century from the foundation of the Rugby Football Union in January 1871 to the decision to hold an inaugural knock-out competition for English clubs during the 1971-72 season. It was not technically a cup competition because there was only a plaque to be presented to the winning team at the end of the Final by the RFU President...

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31 January 2022

The Four Proud Provinces of Ireland

As the Six Nations Championship of 2022 approaches, several highly significant clashes await between old rivals. Whichever country you support, the England match against Ireland at Twickenham in March for the Millennium Trophy is likely to be particularly hard-fought...

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24 January 2022

The History of Wimbledon RFC

In 1865 Queen Victoria reigned, Alice in Wonderland was published, the American Civil War was coming to an end and Wimbledon Rugby Football Club was born...

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