From The Vaults

23 September 2024

The Autograph Hunter

The World Rugby Museum has recently acquired an unusual and unique item, a scarf embroidered with the signatures of famous international rugby players...

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23 September 2024

The Autograph Hunter

The World Rugby Museum has recently acquired an unusual and unique item, a scarf embroidered with the signatures of famous international rugby players...

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29 August 2024

#FromTheVaults - Memorial Cards, 1905

In 1905, Cardiff witnessed some fantastic rugby from a Wales side on the cusp of global pre-eminence and Welsh printers found a humorous way to commemorate the historic victories. This month, we are highlighting some “mourning cards” from our collection...

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18 March 2024

Cliff Morgan Interviews FC Christie

The World Rugby Museum has recently embarked on a long-term programme to permanently accession digital material into its collection. During this process, a cassette tape recording was discovered containing a radio interview, hosted by Cliff Morgan for BBC Radio Four in 1993. The subject of his interview was an elderly lady called Ms FC Christie, or ‘Chris’ for short, who had been attending rugby matches since 1914...

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12 February 2024

Is a dog a spectator?

In November 1886 an unusual series of events led to special consideration being given to the question of whether a dog could be considered a spectator at a rugby match...

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12 November 2023

#FromTheVaults - Newspaper Cutting, 1915

This newspaper cutting from 1915 features a photograph of three international rugby players in their military uniforms on the Western Front...

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04 September 2023

#FromTheVaults - A Letter from a Rugby Schoolboy, 1811

It is 200 years since William Webb Ellis is said to have run carrying a football on the playing fields at Rugby School. This letter from our collection contains one of the earliest references to Rugby football...

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21 August 2023

#FromTheVaults - All Blacks and Springboks

With New Zealand and South Africa preparing for a Rugby World Cup warm-up match at Twickenham on Friday, we’re highlighting two items which have recently been loaned to the World Rugby Museum.

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31 July 2023

A Street Through Time

Charles Street, the former Groundsman of Blackheath Football Club, witnessed many of the finest rugby players of the late 19th and first half of the 20th Century. Here we share an audio interview by the BBC that we hold in our collection...

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03 July 2023

Allez les Bleus illustrations

The illustrations and cartoons reproduced in our current exhibition, Allez Les Bleus, chart the growing popularity of rugby in France during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. This week’s blog explores the stories behind some of these illustrations. The images were kindly supplied by Frederic Humbert.

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15 May 2023

#FromTheVaults - Fijian seven-dollar note

As the World Sevens Series arrives at Twickenham this weekend, we are shining a spotlight on these unusual Fijian banknotes in our collection...

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20 March 2023

#FromTheVaults - 1909 Varsity Match

The annual fixture between the Oxford and Cambridge university rugby teams has had its fair share of memorable moments and witnessed the breakthrough of several future international rugby stars. Ahead of this year’s Varsity Match at Twickenham, we are sharing the story of the 1909 game...

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04 February 2023

'A Football Match, Scotland v England'

To coincide with this year’s Calcutta Cup clash, a new painting has been unveiled at the World Rugby Museum. Commissioned by Oliver Donovan and painted by Robert Highton, the artwork recreates a famous lost painting from the 1880s.

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