The crest on the badge below is from the 1899 Anglo-Australia team although this name is slightly misleading as the team was in fact a British representative side that toured Australia and not the teams combined as the name suggests. But who made up the Anglo- Australian team? Well today we would know them as the British and Irish Lions, a team made up of the best players from the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish national Rugby teams. Although the name is misleading the badge does represent the team correctly with the symbol from each country intertwined. This article aims to review the history of each of those logos and to determine if the Welsh really were represented by the leek over 100 years ago.
The first symbol on the crest is the red rose of
England. The English Rose was chosen by the Rugby Football Union in
1871, but there is debate about why it was picked. It is likely
that, along with the all-white kit, the rose symbol was borrowed
from Rugby School, where Lawrence Sherriff, the founder, had based
the school's logo on his own coat of arms that included a red rose,
presented to him by Queen Elizabeth I. Another possibility is that
the RFU picked it to represent the English monarchy, for which the
red rose has been a symbol ever since the end of the Wars of the
Roses. Or was it simply due to an influential group of Lancastrians
who were present at the time? Below the rose, to the left of the
crest, there is a thistle representing Scotland. There is less
debate as to why this is the symbol for the Scottish rugby team.
The thistle is also Scotland's national flower. According to legend
Scots were once alerted to the presence of Viking invaders when a
bare-foot Northman stepped on a thistle and screamed. Because of
this Scotland and eventually their national rugby team selected the
thistle as their emblem. Next to the thistle, on the right of the
crest, is a shamrock representing Ireland. The use of the shamrock
as the symbol of Ireland and subsequently the symbol of the Irish
team is widely understood to be because of St Patrick, Ireland's
patron saint, and has been used since the eighteenth century. The
final logo at the bottom of the badge is a pair of crossed leeks, a
national emblem of Wales. Today we know the Welsh Rugby Union's
logo as being the Prince of Wales Feathers. This alternative logo
raises the question of how close the Welsh were to having a leek as
the symbol of their national rugby team? The answer in short is not
very. The Welsh team have used the Prince of Wales Feathers as
their emblem since their first international against England in
1881. It is thought that the Welsh Rugby Union picked the Prince of
Wales Feathers over the leek as their symbol in the nineteenth
century as a demonstration of loyalty to Britain and her empire.
Therefore it seems that the Welsh were never going to be the 'leeks
of international rugby' and the use of the leek in this badge was a
one off. Which leaves only one question- why did the 1899
Anglo-Australia tour organisers choose the leek?
About the Author - Holly Parsons graduated from Portsmouth University having studied Heritage and Museum Studies. She has been volunteering at the World Rugby Museum for little over a year and has been part of several research, display and archiving projects. She can be contacted @holly_p9 or http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/holly-parsons/6b/765/951
