From The Vaults

12 September 2016

The most iconic image in the history of sport?

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.

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12 September 2016

The most iconic image in the history of sport?

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.

05 September 2016

Lest We Forget - George Pugh (Australia) 05/09/1916

George Pugh was born in Glebe, Sydney on 16 January 1890 and won his only Australian test cap against the United States of America on the Wallabies North American tour of 1912.

03 September 2016

Lest We Forget - Horace Wyndham Thomas (Wales) 03/09/1916

Horace Wyndham Thomas was that very rare combination: not only a gifted Cambridge choral scholar, but also a brilliant Welsh international rugby player.

25 August 2016

“Dicky” Lloyd (Ireland) - the one who came back...

There were a handful of rugby players who played international rugby both sides of the 1st World War. Perhaps the most fortunate was the Irish fly half Dicky Lloyd...

18 August 2016

International Rugby's most decorated player

The Black Ferns fly half, Anna Richards, is the most decorated player in the history of international rugby. With a total of 49 caps under her belt, Richards is the most capped Black Fern to date...

15 August 2016

Rugby returns to the Olympics

In 1892, Baron Pierre de Coubertin made his first speech at the Sorbonne University of Paris, calling for the revival of the International Olympic Games. Such sports exchanges, he said, would be the "new free trade" of Europe.

14 August 2016

Lest We Forget ̶ Charles "Charlie" Meyrick Pritchard (Wales) 14/08/1916

During the Great War, Captain Wyndham Williams RAMC kept a diary of his experiences as a medical officer on the Western Front.

09 August 2016

Lest We Forget - John Abbott King (England) 09/08/1916

John Abbott King, known as Jack, was born in Burley in Leeds, and was one of the shortest men to wear an England jersey. His height of 5ft 5in (1.65m) was in contrast to his chest measurement of 46 inches, giving him the nickname of "Pocket Hercules".

09 August 2016

Lest We Forget - Lancelot Andrew Noel Slocock (England) 09/08/1916

Lancelot Andrew Noel Slocock, more often called Andrew or Noel, was born in Wooton Wawen, near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was one of ten children of Reverend Frederick Henry Slocock and his wife Judith Emily, who also came from an ecclesiastical background.

03 August 2016

Rugby at the 1924 Olympic Games – a false dawn

When the French and United States of America rugby teams walked out onto the pitch at Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris on Sunday 18 May 1924 for the final of the rugby tournament, few could have anticipated either the extraordinary result of the match or that it would be the last time that rugby would feature in the Olympic Games until 2016, ninety two years later.

14 July 2016

Lest We Forget ̶ David “Dai” Watts (Wales) 14/07/1916

Yet another casualty of the Battle of the Somme, "Dai" Watts ̶ a tough and immensely strong forward ̶ was at the core of a formidable and powerful Welsh pack who outplayed all their international opponents in the last season before the Great War.

12 July 2016

Lest We Forget ̶ John Lewis Williams (Wales) 12/07/1916

During the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the flying Welsh wing-three-quarter, John ("Johnny" or "Johnnie") Lewis Williams, was inducted into World Rugby's Hall of Fame, ninety-nine years after his death in the Great War.

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