From The Vaults

08 July 2019

Happy Blogiversary!

It's been 5 years since we started this blog and over that time we've covered all sorts of topics, from ghostly paintings and the Twickenham streaker, to the "First Lady" of rugby and international rugby's most decorated player. Not forgetting our extraterrestrial jersey! Here's a round up of our top 10 most read posts over the last 5 years...

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08 July 2019

Happy Blogiversary!

It's been 5 years since we started this blog and over that time we've covered all sorts of topics, from ghostly paintings and the Twickenham streaker, to the "First Lady" of rugby and international rugby's most decorated player. Not forgetting our extraterrestrial jersey! Here's a round up of our top 10 most read posts over the last 5 years...

24 June 2019

The Shimogamo Shrine: Rugby's First Religious Monument

The Shimogamo Shrine is a designated UNESCO world heritage site that dates from the 6th Century. It is described in the Japanese origin myth as the final resting place of Yatagarasu, the three legged crow, who guided Japan’s first Emperor to his place of residence at Yamato.

17 June 2019

Trend or Tradition? Part 2

3 years ago we posted a response to an article published on Americas Rugby News in which Richard Steele examined the history of Scottish selections and whether the trend of international teams selecting foreign born players really is as modern as is widely assumed. This time, John Jenkins takes a look at some other rugby nations...

06 June 2019

Remembering Bob Weighill

Remembering Bob Weighill, the England captain who helped pave the way for the Normandy landings...

27 May 2019

Kent v Sussex 1866 - the world's first representative match?

John Honeysett's recent book 'The History of Brighton Football Club (Rugby Union)' provides a shake-up for established rugby historical orthodoxies. Amongst a number of claims is that Kent and Sussex contested the first county match in 1866, four years before Lancashire met Yorkshire for the first time in what is believed to have been the first representative match of any kind. Here John explains...

20 May 2019

Old and New - a look at the changing nature of rugby committees, by Keith Gregson

Sunderland RFC’s historian Keith Gregson gives pause for thought about rugby club committees – past and present...

13 May 2019

Who is Eric Bole?

Who is Eric Bole? During the 1940s, he was an English rugby player of outstanding ability—profiled in 1945 by The Times as “a forward of high promise”—and yet, he never managed to earn his international cap for England...

06 May 2019

Richmond FC at War

When we talk about our playing days we casually throw out words which suggest we were engaged in a sort of warfare, but for an awful lot of our predecessors at Richmond Football Club the words had a harsh and vivid reality...

29 April 2019

Historic Rugby Internationals: South Africa v British Isles, 1974

Rugby history beckoned at Ellis Park, Johannesburg on Saturday July 27th 1974. The British Lions were playing the 22nd and final match of their tour and they had won all their previous matches...

22 April 2019

Thomas Cook’s Rugby Club

The book, Thomas Cook’s Rugby Club 1910-1966, tells the story about the life and times of the illustrious travel firm and its rugger club...

16 April 2019

The 1919 Rugby World Cup Final...

A century ago, in this deciding clash for George V’s King’s Cup, could the Mother Country reverse their earlier defeat by New Zealand, or would the men from 12,000 miles away maintain their edge and build on the winning reputation they and their countrymen had built over the previous fifteen years?

09 April 2019

Play-offs loom in the 1919 King's Cup...

The Services teams from Down Under finally clashed at Bradford after a snow-postponement, and the against-the-odds Aussie win helped the Mother Country in their hopes of forcing a play-off for the 1919 Kings Cup…

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