From The Vaults

11 January 2021

Denzil Batchelor's All-Star XV

Denzil Batchelor was a sports and war correspondent, poet and playwright. He played rugby at Oxford University in the 1920s and was a lifelong fan of cricket and rugby. This All-Star XV is an extract from his book ‘Babbled of Green Fields’ published in 1961.

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11 January 2021

Denzil Batchelor's All-Star XV

Denzil Batchelor was a sports and war correspondent, poet and playwright. He played rugby at Oxford University in the 1920s and was a lifelong fan of cricket and rugby. This All-Star XV is an extract from his book ‘Babbled of Green Fields’ published in 1961.

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30 November 2020

‘L’art du drop goal’ – a French phenomenon?

Kicking a drop goal has often proved a decisive factor in the winning of matches at international level since the second match between England and Scotland at The Oval in 1872 when Harold Freeman for England and Charles Cathcart for Scotland each scored a drop goal.

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02 November 2020

International Triplets

There have been around 30 known cases of "triplets" appearing for their country, but only a select group of six families have produced siblings who have appeared alongside at least two other brothers in the same international team on the same day.

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05 October 2020

Ernie Crawford - a legendary Irish full back

The Irish selectors alighted on the Lansdowne and Leinster player William Ernest ‘Ernie’ Crawford as their full back when they chose the team for the first post-war Ireland international against England at Lansdowne Road, Dublin on February 14th 1920.

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14 September 2020

The Stellenbosch Three-quarter line

If asked to name the most illustrious three-quarter line from one club or country, northern hemisphere rugby historians are most likely to name the Oxford University and Scotland three-quarter line of the 1920s...

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10 August 2020

Alan Rotherham - the Original Half-Back

When international rugby began in 1871 it was a twenty-a-side game dominated by forward play and protracted scrummaging. In 1877 the number of players was reduced to fifteen. Over the following decade and a half the number of forwards slowly decreased as the number of backs slowly increased and teams discovered the benefits of a more attacking, open game, utilising running and passing backs.

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08 June 2020

Dai Gent's All-Star XV

Swansea born Dai Gent twice trialled for Wales before being selected for England. A prototype scrum-half at a time when the English were playing half-backs, he memorably partnered Adrian Stoop in the English midfield in the first test-match to be held at Twickenham, in 1910, where England beat Wales for the first time in 12 years.

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01 June 2020

The Incomparable Christophe

Some rugby grounds inspire great performances and Twickenham is no exception. The great deeds of English players tend to dominate in the collective memories of English fans – think Richard Sharp or Andy Hancock in the 1960s – but there have been players from other countries who have reserved some of their finest performances on the rugby field for this part of south-west London.

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13 April 2020

Remembering Graham Budge - the Evergreen International

Aidan Taylor shares his research on Scotland International, Graham Budge…

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29 March 2020

Remembering Prince Alexander Obolensky

Born in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) on 17th February 1916, Prince Alexander Obolensky was the son of an officer of the Tsar’s Imperial Horse Guards and his wife Princess Luba...

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27 January 2020

Weighing up the Competition

Rugby is a very physical contact sport, and as such the physicality of the players has been of great interest to supporters for the majority of the game’s history. Some programmes for tours and matches have listed player weights and heights ever since the early 20th Century...

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17 January 2020

On This Day 100 Years Ago...

On this day 100 years ago, one of England’s most iconic captains donned an England jersey for the first time...

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