From The Vaults

26 September 2022

The Rugby World Cup: In Her Own Words - 1998

1998 saw the first IRB sanctioned Rugby World Cup, with the event held in the Netherlands after the late cancellation 4 years earlier...

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26 September 2022

The Rugby World Cup: In Her Own Words - 1998

1998 saw the first IRB sanctioned Rugby World Cup, with the event held in the Netherlands after the late cancellation 4 years earlier...

22 September 2022

The Rugby World Cup: In Her Own Words - 1994

The 1994 World Cup was initially due to be played in the Netherlands, but the Dutch pulled out of hosting duties just weeks before the event was due to start when it became clear the the IRB would not officially endorse it...

20 September 2022

The Rugby World Cup: In Her Own Words - 1991

The inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup took place in Wales over nine days in April 1991. The 12 teams that took part all had to pay their own way to get there and participate, with the entire competition run on a shoestring budget...

Jimmy Peters Story

05 September 2022

The Story of Jimmy Peters

Jimmy Peters was a fast, elusive English half-back who rose to prominence firstly with Bristol and then Plymouth and Devon in the opening decade of the 20th Century. Abandoned as a child Peters was raised firstly at Fegan's Orphanage, Southwalk Street London and then the 'Little Wanderers' Orphanage in Greenwich.

29 August 2022

#FromTheVaults - Anglo-Welsh Tour Souvenirs, 1908

What kind of souvenirs have you brought home from your summer holiday? When Tom Smith visited New Zealand and Australia as part of the British Isles touring team in 1908, he returned home with a boomerang and a cocoa pod...

22 August 2022

The Resumption of Hostilities: South Africa v New Zealand, 15 August 1992

After years of isolation, South Africa was re-admitted to international rugby in 1992. The All Blacks had last undertaken an official full tour of South Africa in 1976, but a rebel New Zealand Cavaliers team had toured the Republic ten years later and lost a four-test series. The following is an account of their "reunion" match in August 1992...

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...

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