From The Vaults

09 March 2023

World’s Oldest International Match Footage

Stunning footage has been uncovered of the 1911 England v France Five Nations test-match. It shows the first time that France took the field at Twickenham and is believed to be the oldest footage of an international test match in existence...

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09 March 2023

World’s Oldest International Match Footage

Stunning footage has been uncovered of the 1911 England v France Five Nations test-match. It shows the first time that France took the field at Twickenham and is believed to be the oldest footage of an international test match in existence...

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20 February 2023

Le Classique - France v Scotland

On 15th January 1922, ‘Le Petit Journal’ illustrated magazine featured on its cover an illustration of a gallant French rugby player resisting the tackles of two Scottish opponents. The coloured drawing captures the excitement of what was, at the time for French fans, the most anticipated match of the Five Nations calendar...

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27 January 2023

‘I Was There’ – Barbarians v New Zealand, 1973, by Barney Burnham

The date: Saturday, 27th of January, 1973. The place: National Stadium, Cardiff. The event: Barbarians v New Zealand. Result: Barbarians 23 New Zealand 11

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20 January 2023

England's Greatest Ever Side?

As the 2023 Six Nations Championship approaches, the sense of anticipation that pervades this great competition builds as it has done every January for more than 130 years...

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11 November 2022

First Brave Blossoms on Film

Footage has emerged of the first time that the Japanese national rugby team took to the field, in a game against Vancouver in 1930 during a tour to Canada...

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20 October 2022

Sending off is no longer the ultimate disgrace?

When the All Black second row forward Cyril Brownlie was sent off the field in the tenth minute of the match between England and New Zealand at Twickenham on January 3rd 1925, it caused a sensation...

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22 August 2022

The Resumption of Hostilities: South Africa v New Zealand, 15 August 1992

After years of isolation, South Africa was re-admitted to international rugby in 1992. The All Blacks had last undertaken an official full tour of South Africa in 1976, but a rebel New Zealand Cavaliers team had toured the Republic ten years later and lost a four-test series. The following is an account of their "reunion" match in August 1992...

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01 August 2022

1996: The year that changed Rugby Union forever

When the rugby union game was thrown open to professionalism suddenly if not entirely unexpectedly at the conclusion of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, a myriad of conflicting forces was unleashed...

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18 July 2022

Legendary Four Nations tries

Rugby lovers over the last sixty years have been fortunate to grow up with a visual library of the great tries from the International Championship now readily available on video, DVD and YouTube. But what of the great tries of the pre-visual era which can only be recalled from grainy newspaper reports of long ago and, much more rarely, even grainier pre and post-World War One highlights footage from Pathe News?

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23 May 2022

Crossing the andes: Los Pumas to Chile

Eduardo García Sáenz pays a tribute to the 1936 Argentinian touring team...

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16 May 2022

The Tour from Hell

When rugby union embraced professionalism at the end of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, a sea change took place in the nature and number of contacts and matches for players, clubs and international teams...

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14 February 2022

The Wales tour of the Pacific Islands, 1986

In the summer of 1986, with professionalism still almost ten years away, the Welsh Rugby Union sent a touring party of 25 players to the south seas to play six matches in Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa...

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