From The Vaults

11 December 2014

The Official History of Rugby Officials

When the Laws of the Game of Rugby Football were agreed following the formation of the RFU in 1871, no provision was made for the use of independent arbiters.

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11 December 2014

The Official History of Rugby Officials

When the Laws of the Game of Rugby Football were agreed following the formation of the RFU in 1871, no provision was made for the use of independent arbiters.

08 December 2014

The Varsity Match

The Varsity Match was first contested in 1872, a year after the first international match. It was moved permanently to Twickenham in 1921 and has remained an annual fixture ever since. Traditionally held on a Tuesday, it has more recently been moved to a Thursday, in the winter month of December.

03 December 2014

The Voice of Rugby

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s Bill McLaren's voice carried live television rugby broadcasting and he had come to be regarded as the ‘Voice of Rugby’ by the time he retired in 2000...

01 December 2014

Lest We Forget - Francis Eckley Oakeley (England) 01/12/1914

Francis Oakeley was the fifth son of the vicar of Holy Trinity, Hereford. His father James and his mother Frances had 11 children in all. He was educated at the Cathedral School in Hereford from where he went at the age of 13 to the Royal Naval College at Osborne on the Isle of Wight, before transferring two years later to Dartmouth to complete his training.

27 November 2014

Wallabies Feeling Blue

The museum has recently acquired a New South Wales (NSW) jersey that was collected by Tom Smith of Leicester during the 1908 Anglo-Welsh (British Lions) tour to Australia and New Zealand.

25 November 2014

Lost and Found - The Asahi Trophy

After the annual Australian inter-varsity rugby competition ended in Sydney in 1990 the convenor reported that no trophies had been presented, '…the rugby trophy seems to be lost'.

19 November 2014

The Twickenham Streaker

For all the spectacular moments of triumph and despair played out on the Twickenham turf, for some people a selection of the stadium's most memorable moments have been of a rather different variety.

08 November 2014

'Forever England' - Shane Record

To commemorate the passing of a century since the outbreak of the First World War the RFU has commissioned a special painting of England's 1914 Grand Slam winning side.

06 November 2014

Lest We Forget - William Darby (Leicester Tigers) 15/09/1915

Over the next four years the World Rugby Museum will be describing the experiences of rugby players during the Great War (1914-1918). 128 full internationals lost their lives to the conflict, alongside thousands more players from local clubs, counties and representative sides.

30 October 2014

INTERVIEW - Frik du Preez

Legendary South African forward Frik Du Preez was an archetypal player. He loved the game beyond all else. Not even the oppressive shadow of Apartheid, which darkened the game during his career, could snuff out the candle he held for the noble sport of rugby union.

22 October 2014

The Last Game of Rugby (2029)

The following article by Leonard R Tosswill was first published in Rugby Football Weekly in January of 1929. It involves an imagined future (2029) in which women and men played rugby on the same team- women as backs, men as forwards.

17 October 2014

Crossing the Divide, 1908

A recent addition to the Museum's archives throws some fascinating light on a controversial part of rugby's history. 1908 marked a difficult time for English rugby.

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