From The Vaults

08 August 2022

An English club knock-out competition at last!

It remains surprising that it took a century from the foundation of the Rugby Football Union in January 1871 to the decision to hold an inaugural knock-out competition for English clubs during the 1971-72 season. It was not technically a cup competition because there was only a plaque to be presented to the winning team at the end of the Final by the RFU President...

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08 August 2022

An English club knock-out competition at last!

It remains surprising that it took a century from the foundation of the Rugby Football Union in January 1871 to the decision to hold an inaugural knock-out competition for English clubs during the 1971-72 season. It was not technically a cup competition because there was only a plaque to be presented to the winning team at the end of the Final by the RFU President...

01 August 2022

1996: The year that changed Rugby Union forever

When the rugby union game was thrown open to professionalism suddenly if not entirely unexpectedly at the conclusion of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, a myriad of conflicting forces was unleashed...

25 July 2022

#FromTheVaults - ANZACS XV jersey, 1989

For this month’s highlight from the collection, we look back to the first – and so far, only – time that Australia and New Zealand fielded a combined rugby union team. Described as the ANZACS XV, this jersey was worn by the team’s Australian fly-half, Michael Lynagh...

18 July 2022

Legendary Four Nations tries

Rugby lovers over the last sixty years have been fortunate to grow up with a visual library of the great tries from the International Championship now readily available on video, DVD and YouTube. But what of the great tries of the pre-visual era which can only be recalled from grainy newspaper reports of long ago and, much more rarely, even grainier pre and post-World War One highlights footage from Pathe News?

12 July 2022

25 years of the Cook Cup

Today marks 25 years since the inaugural Cook Cup match was played. The trophy, contested by England and Australia, has recently been retired to make way for the new Ella-Mobbs Cup...

04 July 2022

More than a game: Rugby inspired Art by Lucia Hardy

Power and beauty. Runs swift as lightning. Thunder in the clash of bodies and colours. As an artist and a rugby lover, it’s not too hard to see how Rugby has inspired artists since it first became known and loved...

27 June 2022

Recent Acquisition: Magor Maidens jersey

The World Rugby Museum recently welcomed Jackie Dyer, RFU Council Member for Nottingham, Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire, as she donated a Magor Maidens jersey, one of the twelve founding teams of the Women’s Rugby Football Union (WRFU)...

17 June 2022

Behind the Scenes at the World Rugby Museum: Collections Care

It’s Museum Week and we’re giving you behind-the-scenes insight into how we care for our historic collection...

13 June 2022

Phil Bennett - the complete fly half

In memory of the great Phil Bennett, shown here introducing the Prince Of Wales to his 1977 Lions team, here is an interview he gave to the World Rugby Museum about his fond memories of playing at Twickenham…

06 June 2022

The legality of subsitutions, 1924

On the 12th December 1924, administrators of England, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand, New South Wales, South Africa and Ireland met at the Great Northern Hotel, Kings Cross London for the first 'Imperial Rugby Conference'...

30 May 2022

The unluckiest All Black?

A biography of Alexander 'Nugget' Pringle has recently been published, written by his nephew Robert Greig Pringle. The following is an adapted extract...

23 May 2022

Crossing the andes: Los Pumas to Chile

Eduardo García Sáenz pays a tribute to the 1936 Argentinian touring team...

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