From The Vaults

06 May 2015

...he might have stood as a symbol of the heart of England...remembering Ronnie Poulton

The following is an extract from AA Thomson's 'What Do They Know of England?' published in 1955. It begins with a description of Ronnie Poulton's devastating display against Cambridge in the 1909 Varsity Match:

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06 May 2015

...he might have stood as a symbol of the heart of England...remembering Ronnie Poulton

The following is an extract from AA Thomson's 'What Do They Know of England?' published in 1955. It begins with a description of Ronnie Poulton's devastating display against Cambridge in the 1909 Varsity Match:

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16 April 2015

Club Histories - The Amazing Old Streetonians

Rugby clubs come in all different shapes and sizes and not all of them fit the traditional mould of having been formed by ex-public schoolboys in the Victorian era.

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14 April 2015

Ronnie Poulton's final game, 1915

This year the 14th of April marks the one hundredth anniversary of a remarkable game of rugby union played between the 4th and 48th (South Midland) Divisions of the British Army at Nieppe in France, close to the Belgium border.

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09 April 2015

Baa Baa’s Birthday

125 years ago on the 9th April 1890, in the early hours of the morning, W P Carpmael and the Southern Nomads team sat down after a successful Easter tour and a hearty meal to form a touring rugby side.

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02 March 2015

LAST CHANCE TO SEE: Old Streetonians: life, rugby and art in Shoreditch

For the purposes of this exhibition a section of the World Rugby Museum has been converted into a Shoreditch loft.

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12 February 2015

Family Histories - Samuel George Williams

Like Great Grandfather, Like Son... The Museum was recently contacted by Paul Whitehead, the great-grandson of Devon and England stalwart Samuel George Williams.

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15 January 2015

Amateurism Gone Awry

This 1908 New Zealand Jersey came to the museum by way of Tom Smith, an Anglo-Welsh and Leicester Tigers player from the 1900s. The Museum recently bought his collection at auction and it gives a unique insight into one of rugby union's early tours and the state of amateurism within the game at that time.

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22 December 2014

Nadolig Llawen!

With Christmas fast approaching I wanted to delve into our stores and see what festive cheer I could find. Hidden amongst team photographs and aerial shots of the stadium I found this Christmas postcard: Sent on Christmas Eve 1903 to Miss Alice Roberts from Newport, South Wales...

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08 December 2014

The Varsity Match

The Varsity Match was first contested in 1872, a year after the first international match. It was moved permanently to Twickenham in 1921 and has remained an annual fixture ever since. Traditionally held on a Tuesday, it has more recently been moved to a Thursday, in the winter month of December.

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25 November 2014

Lost and Found - The Asahi Trophy

After the annual Australian inter-varsity rugby competition ended in Sydney in 1990 the convenor reported that no trophies had been presented, '…the rugby trophy seems to be lost'.

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06 November 2014

Lest We Forget - William Darby (Leicester Tigers) 15/09/1915

Over the next four years the World Rugby Museum will be describing the experiences of rugby players during the Great War (1914-1918). 128 full internationals lost their lives to the conflict, alongside thousands more players from local clubs, counties and representative sides.

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17 October 2014

Crossing the Divide, 1908

A recent addition to the Museum's archives throws some fascinating light on a controversial part of rugby's history. 1908 marked a difficult time for English rugby.

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