From The Vaults

14 March 2016

Lest We Forget - Lou Phillips (Wales) 14/03/1916

Arguably no sport requires such a wide and varied range of skills as rugby. It isn't surprising, therefore, that many of the best exponents of the game have also been good at other sports.

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14 March 2016

Lest We Forget - Lou Phillips (Wales) 14/03/1916

Arguably no sport requires such a wide and varied range of skills as rugby. It isn't surprising, therefore, that many of the best exponents of the game have also been good at other sports.

01 March 2016

One of Us - William Wavell Wakefield

William Wavell Wakefield is one of the most celebrated English rugby players of all time. His total of 31 caps was an English record for over forty years and he was still being described as England's greatest ever forward in 1983 when he passed away at the age of 85.

23 February 2016

'Clem' Lewis and the King's Cup

J M Clement 'Clem' Lewis was a talented fly half for Cardiff and Cambridge University either side of World War One, who won 11 caps between 1912 and 1923 and rose to captain Wales in the last two of those games.

17 February 2016

Ode to Obolensky

Russian-born English wing Prince Alexander Obolensky. Obo, as he was nicknamed, scored two tries on his international debut, helping England to their first win over New Zealand in 1936...

09 February 2016

Ode to Arthur 'Monkey' Gould

Arthur Joseph 'Monkey' Gould was arguably the first great Welsh rugby player. As captain he led Wales to her first Home Nations Championship victory and Triple Crown in 1893.

21 December 2015

Passchendaele Remembers Dai Westacott

At a moving commemoration held on the evening of the 10th November each year, the villagers of Passchendaele honour the memory of the men of all nationalities who died during the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July - 10 November 1917), perhaps better known as "Passchendaele".

14 December 2015

Welsh Giants of the King's Cup

When Newport staged one of the games in the six-team Inter Services Championship (King's Cup) in March 1919, Australia beating South Africa 6-5 in March 1919, a Newport man who was to be a South African cap was in the 'Springbok' line up.

11 December 2015

One of Us: England's Greatest Rugby Players - Norman Wodehouse

The word 'hero' is often freely bandied about in relation to sport but Norman Wodehouse was a hero in every sense of the word. Born in Basford, by the age of fifteen he had enrolled in the Royal Naval College and was selected to represent the Royal Navy in 1907.

07 December 2015

Ireland's Call by Stephen Walker

During the Great War hundreds of Irish rugby players joined the British Army and lost their lives in the mud of France and Flanders and in the heat of Gallipoli.

02 December 2015

One of Us: England’s Greatest Rugby Players - Cherry Pillman

As a boy Cherry Pillman is purported to have been present when the 1905 touring All-Blacks took on England at Crystal Palace. If true it would seem that whilst everyone else was becoming irate at the borderline infringement play of New Zealand captain Dave Gallaher, Pillman was taking notes.

24 November 2015

One of Us: England's Greatest Rugby Players - Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson was concussed for most of his 1993 international debut. The fact that he was singled out as having shored up the English lineout and ensured a narrow victory over France was indicative of the type of impact he would go on to have for his team.

03 November 2015

Red Rose Stories: Gary Pearce

January, 1978. It's a cold Sunday morning in Buckinghamshire, and England are playing a training match against a local county XV. A twenty-one-year-old prop from Aylesbury Rugby Club is about to make a tackle he'll never forget.

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