From The Vaults

There were three Rugby World Cup tournaments held in the years before rugby went fully professional in the summer of 1995 and there was at least one player in each of the cup winning sides who could be said to have owed their selection to being in the right place at the right time.

Rugby World Cup 2019 begins on Friday so it’s the perfect time to get up to speed with the world’s biggest rugby tournament!

English merchants and soldiers had brought rugby to Japan even before it had arrived in New Zealand. Yokohama Football Club, founded in 1866, is the oldest known rugby club in Asia.

With the advent of the Rugby World Cup in 1987 rugby union had found its greatest stage and greatest potential for upsets. The shift away from test-rugby allowed the relative minnows of the global game their shot at the big fish. But one of the greatest upsets in the tournament's history featured two international heavyweights.

This photograph of Nelson Mandela awarding the 1995 Rugby World Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar is one of the most iconic in sport and is significant on a number of levels.

In advance of the 2015 Rugby World Cup over 20,000 applications were received, of which 6,000 talented individuals were chosen to become members of 'The Pack' - an elite group of Rugby World Cup 2015 volunteers.

Proposals for a regular rugby world cup tournament first began to circulate in the 1950s. They were rejected by the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) who, in 1958, advocated a "go slow" policy in regard to 'foreign fixtures', fearing that club rugby might otherwise be adversely affected.