From The Vaults

31 March 2025

France and Italy, A Century Apart

The overwhelming Guinness Six Nations 73-24 home defeat for Italy at the hands of France in their 2025 fiftieth competitive international has led to consideration of whether one can draw meaningful parallels between the early days of French international rugby and the performance of the Azzurri since the inauguration of the Six Nations competition in 2000...

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31 March 2025

France and Italy, A Century Apart

The overwhelming Guinness Six Nations 73-24 home defeat for Italy at the hands of France in their 2025 fiftieth competitive international has led to consideration of whether one can draw meaningful parallels between the early days of French international rugby and the performance of the Azzurri since the inauguration of the Six Nations competition in 2000...

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21 March 2025

Historic Rugby Internationals: Scotland v England, 1925

It's been 100 years since Murrayfield hosted its first match. World Rugby Museum researcher Richard Steele looks back at this historic game between Scotland and England on 21 March 1925...

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03 March 2025

Thrilling tries from a bygone era

There is nothing more thrilling for a crowd than the sight of a winger racing down the touch line, sometimes in the clear and sometimes with defenders to beat...

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21 February 2025

A Trip to Murrayfield

World Rugby Museum researcher Richard Steele shares his memories of the 1990 Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield…

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31 January 2025

Ireland’s International Debut

On 15 February 1875, the first ever representative Irish football team took to the field, at the Oval in London...

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24 January 2025

Inverleith – Scotland’s rugby ground at the beginning of the 20th century

One hundred years ago on Saturday 24 January 1925 the Scotland rugby team played its 39th international on the rugby ground at Inverleith in north Edinburgh...

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18 November 2024

Japan v England XV, 1971 by Hideki Shoji

In September 1971, about one month after the British Lions clinched their first-ever Test Series victory in New Zealand, the first international match between England and Japan was about to kick off in the Far East...

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14 November 2024

Why did the 1924 New Zealand Invincibles not play Scotland? By Stephen Berg

It is one hundred years since the great All Blacks side, the 'Invincibles' of 1924-25. Heroes and household names for a generation of New Zealanders, forever to be remembered as the team that beat them all. But did they beat them all and why didn’t they play Scotland?

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13 September 2024

All Hail the Invincibles

In any discussion of the greatest men’s international rugby teams of all time, there are a number of sides that get a mention but those in the know namecheck a side whose credentials in many ways surpass all others - the Invincibles...

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18 June 2024

The Original Brave Blossoms Tour by Hideki Shoji

In 1930 the first representative Japan rugby team embarked on a tour of Canada. Setting sail from Yokohama on August 17th, the touring party came on the Canadian shore on the evening of the 29th, three days before their first match...

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05 June 2024

The Tour That Never Was

Andrés H. Reggiani of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella – Buenos Aires takes a look at the 1973 England XV tour to Argentina that never was...

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08 April 2024

The First Women's Six Nations

The first women’s 6 Nations Championship took place in 2002, having started as the Home Nations Championship in 1996. This article gives an overview of the tournament that year...

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