English national rugby union team

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England
logo
Association Rugby Football Union (RFU)
Trainer AustraliaAustralia Eddie Jones (since 2015)
captain Owen Farrell
WR abbreviation CLOSELY
WR rank 3rd (87.32 points) (as of February 4, 2020)
home
Away
Most internationals
Jason Leonard (114)
Most Points Scored
Jonny Wilkinson (1179)
Most attempts scored
Rory Underwood (49)
First international match Scotland 4-1 England (27 March 1871; first international match)
ScotlandScotland EnglandEngland
Biggest win England 134-0 Romania (November 17, 2001)
EnglandEnglandRomaniaRomania 
Biggest defeat Australia 76-0 England (6 June 1998)
AustraliaAustralia EnglandEngland
World Championship
participations: 9/9
Best result: World Champion 2003

The English rugby union team ( English England national rugby union team ) is the national team of England in the sport of rugby union and represents the country in all international matches ( test matches ) of the men. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has organizational responsibility . Every year the team takes part in the Six Nations tournament, along with France , Ireland , Italy , Scotland and Wales . So far, England has won the title 29 times, including 13 Grand Slams , and shared another ten title wins.

The team has made its most important international appearances at the world championships, which have been held every four years since 1987 . The second edition in 1991 made it into the finals for the first time, where Australia was defeated. The English secured their only world title to date at the 2003 World Cup , when Australia were defeated in extra time. To date, this is the only final victory for a team from the Northern Hemisphere at world championships. During the 2007 World Cup , the title holder made it back to the final, but lost to South Africa . Both teams faced each other again in the final of the 2019 World Cup ; England was again subject to the "Springboks".

England's first test match took place in 1871 when it was defeated by Scotland in the world's first international rugby match at Edinburgh 's Raeburn Place . England then dominated the Home Nations Championship, the predecessor tournament of the Six Nations, first held in 1883. After the break-off from the Rugby League (especially in northern England), which also weakened the national team, no title was won until 1910. England played for the first time in 1905 against the " All Blacks " from New Zealand , in 1906 against the "Springboks" from South Africa and in 1909 against the "Wallabies" from Australia . It is also one of the countries whose players are eligible to play for the British and Irish Lions , a national team of the four British Home Nations .

England traditionally plays in white jerseys, navy blue trousers and white socks, with an embroidered rose on the jersey borrowed from the House of Lancaster . With a few exceptions, all home games since 1910 have been played at Twickenham Stadium in London . In 2003 World Rugby named the team “Team of the Year”. 15 former England players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame so far .

organization

The Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum in Rugby

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is responsible for the organization of rugby union in England . The RFU was founded on January 26, 1871. It is the oldest rugby union association and joined the International Rugby Board (IRB), now World Rugby , in 1890 . The highest rugby union league in England is the English Premiership , which comprises twelve teams. The national championship is dominated by the international cup competitions European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup , which are held together with teams from France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales .

In addition to the actual national team, the RFU convenes other selection teams. The England Saxons form England's second team. Like other rugby nations, England has a U-20 national team that takes part in the relevant Six Nations and World Cups. Children and young people are introduced to the sport of rugby at school and then, depending on their interests and talent, the training begins. For schoolchildren there is the schoolboys national team , which has developed as a preliminary stage to the national team.

The greatest honor for English players is to go on tour with the British and Irish Lions in the southern hemisphere every few years to play against the All Blacks from New Zealand , the Springboks from South Africa or the Wallabies from Australia .

history

Development in the 19th century

William Webb Ellis
Rugby match between England and Scotland, circa 1893
The English team in 1871 before the first Test match against Scotland in Edinburgh

The invention of rugby is attributed to William Webb Ellis , who is said to have been the first to pick up and carry the ball to score a point at a football game in the town of rugby in 1823 . Rugby School students spread the new sport across the country in the first half of the 19th century. In 1848, the representatives of six public schools agreed for the first time on a common set of rules. On January 26, 1871, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was founded. The first game of an English selection took place two months later on March 27 at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh , hosts Scotland won in front of 4,000 spectators. This game was not only the first encounter between the two countries in any sport, but also the first ever rugby international match. The English were able to return the favor in the second leg in the London Oval , the first home game. These early games did not yet have a set of rules for points; this was not to be introduced until 1890, after a suitable evaluation format had been designed. Until 1875 - as in football - games were decided by the number of goals scored (raises and drop goals), in 1876 the number of attempts made was used when a game was a draw.

After several encounters with Scotland, the first game against Ireland took place in the London Oval in 1875 ; it was also the first international match for the Irish. As was customary at the time, both teams consisted of 20 players; the number of players per team was not reduced to the current 15 until 1877. In 1879, England and Scotland played for the first time in the Calcutta Cup , which was founded in India , with the English winning the first match. The first game against Wales (and thus the last of the four Home Nations ) followed on February 19, 1881 at Richardson's Field in Blackheath and ended with a sovereign victory for the English (according to the points system that is valid today, they would have won 82-0). After a number of sporadic international matches between the individual national teams, the Home Nations associations launched the “Home Nations Championship” (predecessor of today's Six Nations ) in 1883 ; the English secured their first tournament victory.

The first few events of the tournament were marked by conflicts with other associations. In 1884 there was a dispute with the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) due to different interpretations of the rules . The RFU took the position that England, as the "founding nation" of rugby, had the sole right to interpret disputed points in the rules. The Scots disagreed and refused to face England the following year. On December 5, 1887, representatives of the SRU, the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union met in Manchester and founded the International Rugby Board (IRB). The RFU invited to join did not recognize the IRB's claim to be able to determine the rules alone. The other associations then boycotted the English, so that the tournaments of 1888 and 1889 took place without them. In 1890 they participated with reservations and in April of the same year the RFU joined after an arbitration tribunal - consisting of John Macdonald ( Lord Justice Clerk ) and Francis Marindin (President of the Football Association ) - found the Irish, Scots and Welsh to be right . During the boycott, the English played their first game against a non-British team: The New Zealand Natives , a selection of New Zealand natives touring Australia and Europe . England won the game at Rectory Field in Blackheath 7-0.

On August 29, 1895, 21 clubs left the RFU and founded an independent association in Huddersfield , the Northern Rugby Football Union ( called Rugby Football League since 1922 ). This split, which is seen as the birth of the rugby league game variant, occurred because clubs in the north of England in particular wanted to compensate their mostly working-class players financially during injury breaks. The RFU, dominated by members of the upper and upper middle class in southern England, viewed this requirement as a first step towards professional sport and ultimately insisted on strict adherence to amateur status, without success . Since then, rugby league has been particularly prevalent in the northern counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire . Until the professionalization of rugby union a hundred years later, players were not allowed to switch from one variant to the other. As a result of the split, the national team had a long period of no significant success, as many of the best players preferred to become professionals. From 1892 to 1910 there was not a single tournament victory at the Home Nations Championship.

The time up to the Second World War

England versus New Zealand 1905; the All Blacks won 15-0
The New Zealand kitten prevails against the English lion (caricature in Punch )

On December 2, 1905, the English received the All Blacks from New Zealand for the first time and lost with 0:15. On their first European tour , the All Blacks won 34 of 35 games and established their supremacy in rugby union, which continues to this day. On March 22, 1906, England won their first game against France at the Parc des Princes in Paris . On December 8 of the same year, the English competed for the first time against the Springboks from South Africa and reached a 3-3 draw. Before the game, they had reluctantly withdrawn the squad for Jamaican player James Peters after the South Africans steadfastly refused to play a black man.

English teams took part twice in the rugby tournaments at the Olympic Games , but it was not the national team. At the 1900 Summer Games in Paris, it was the Moseley RFC club from Birmingham that won the bronze medal. The silver medalist at the Summer Games in 1908 in London was a selection of the county Cornwall . The first encounter between the English and the Wallabies from Australia ended on January 9, 1909 with a 3: 9 defeat.

In 1910, the RFU moved into the newly built Twickenham Stadium in south-west London, which heralded a "golden era" in English rugby. The opening game in the new national stadium ended with a win over Wales. Also in 1910, the English won the Home Nations Championship for the first time since 1892; the competition was expanded this year with the addition of France to "Five Nations". In 1913 and 1914 England managed the first two " Grand Slams ", ie victories against all other participating teams. In 1913, the first away win since 1895 in Cardiff, which England was able to end the Welsh home winning streak that had been going on since 1899, also succeeded. In the years 1915 to 1919 no international matches could be played because of the First World War .

Illustration of the Wales v England game in 1931

When the Five Nations tournament resumed in 1920, the English continued their winning streak. In the 1920s alone, they won the tournament five times, four of them with a Grand Slam (1921, 1923, 1924 and 1928). Wavell Wakefield is considered the most important builder of this successful series : the tactical innovations he introduced changed the role of the players in the " back row " positions permanently. Before, she had largely limited herself to performing set pieces and was now much more flexible, which in turn caused difficulties for the opponents for a long time. One of the few defeats during this era suffered the English in early January 1925 against the All Blacks, who were touring Europe and were called The Invincibles ("The Unbeatables") because of their unbeatenness (wins in all 36 games) . In 1926, Scotland became the first Home Nations team to win an away win at Twickenham.

In the 1930s there were five more tournament victories for England - albeit without the Grand Slam, as France was excluded from 1932 to 1939 due to alleged professionalism and poor association management and the tournament was again limited to the Home Nations during this time. After all, the tournament was won in 1934 and 1937 with a Triple Crown , i.e. with victories against all other Home Nations. During that decade England hosted two touring national teams from the southern hemisphere in Twickenham. In early January 1932 there was a game against South Africa, with the English losing 7-0. The unattractive tactic of the Springboks of gaining space mainly through kicks met with little enthusiasm among the 70,000 spectators and the press. New Zealand was a guest at the beginning of January 1936. The 13-0 win was the Englishman's first success against the seemingly overwhelming All Blacks. Two attempts by the emigrated Russian prince Alexander Obolenski played a decisive role in this .

Long period of failure

England versus Scotland in the 1959 Five Nations

The national team's game operations were suspended during the Second World War . In 1945 and 1946 the Victory Internationals took place - a series of games against national teams and military selection teams that did not receive full status as test matches . The annual tournament could be held again from 1947 and after the resumption of France carried the designation "Five Nations" for the next five decades. In that year England shared the tournament victory with Wales, while in 1948 they could not win a single game and had to make do with the less popular wooden spoon . The phase of unsuccessfulness lasted until 1953, when England was able to book another tournament victory. In 1954 the title was shared with France and Wales, followed by the seventh Grand Slam in 1957. Further tournament victories came in 1958, 1960 and 1963. South Africa visited in 1952, New Zealand in 1954 and Australia in 1948 and 1958; Only in the last of these four games could the English celebrate a victory. For decades, England internationals only toured the southern hemisphere when called upon by the British Lions . This changed in 1963 when the RFU organized a tour itself for the first time. It led through New Zealand and Australia, with the English defeated the All Blacks and Wallabies in all test matches.

After this tour, the national team slid into a long-lasting crisis. The second half of the 1960s and the entire 1970s are their most unsuccessful era. With the exception of the Five Nations 1973 , when all five teams had two wins and two losses for the only time, England did not win a single tournament and was clearly overshadowed by Wales and France. Contrary to this trend, the first victory against South Africa was achieved on December 20, 1969 in Twickenham. The Springbok tour was accompanied by anti- apartheid protests organized by the future British Prime Minister Gordon Brown . Shortly before, the RFU had appointed Don White as the first official national coach. Although he was considered "the most forward-looking coach in England", he was unable to bring about a lasting change for the better and resigned after two years. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the RFU held a test match against the President's Overseas XV in April 1971 , a world selection compiled by the association's president with the best players of the time.

In 1972 England finished the Five Nations tournament with four clear defeats, clearly distant in last place. The tournament could not be completed because of the Northern Ireland conflict, so there was no winner. After Bloody Sunday of Derry on January 30, the British Embassy in was Dublin burned down by an irate mob and been numerous players had received threatening letters, presumably from the IRA . Scotland and Wales refused to play for the upcoming away games in Ireland and justified this with the lack of security. During the Five Nations 1973 , the English team traveled to Dublin despite similar threats and received a standing ovation for five minutes after arriving on Lansdowne Road (the game was lost 9:18). England team captain John Pullin said jokingly: "We may not be very good, but at least we showed up" ( We might not be very good but at least we turned up ) . The Five Nations 1973 ended with a one-off result: with two wins and two defeats, all five participating teams were tied and shared the title. While the tournament was generally unsuccessful in the 1970s, the English achieved several successes against teams from the southern hemisphere. These include the first-time away wins against South Africa (1972) and New Zealand (1973).

In 1980 England returned to the top of Europe for a short time. The team led by Captain Bill Beaumont won the Five Nations after 23 years, even with a Grand Slam. The then scrum Steve Smith attributed the failures of the past few years to the poorly managed association, which regularly failed to put together the best players and coordinate them. Under these circumstances, the success of 1980 was almost a “miracle”. Resignations by key players such as Beaumont, Fran Cotton and Clive Woodward weakened the team immediately and it passed again more than a decade until the next title win.

Individual outliers in encounters with teams from the southern hemisphere concealed the renewed failure. In 1982 and 1983 there was a home win against Australia and New Zealand. Despite great criticism and political pressure, the RFU again organized a tour to South Africa in the summer of 1984, where the national team played seven games (including two test matches against the Springboks). This was also the last tour of an important team to South Africa until the end of the apartheid era. Margaret Thatcher's indifference towards the actions of the RFU was one of the reasons why 32 countries boycotted the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in protest . Also in 1984 England lost at home to the Australian Wallabies, who in turn were able to celebrate the first Grand Slam (in their case a victory each against all four Home Nations on the same tour).

The last few years of the amateur era

For more than a century, the test matches had been limited to encounters with the Home Nations, France, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, but with the increasing establishment of rugby in other countries, this exclusivity could no longer be justified. In 1981 the English made an official tour to Argentina for the first time and carried out two test matches against the Pumas (one win and one draw). Further successful premieres followed in 1985 against Romania and in 1988 against Fiji . In 1985 the tour to New Zealand ended with two defeats against the All Blacks. Meanwhile, England regularly finished in the rear of the Five Nations tournament, in 1983 and 1987 it ended up in last place without a win. On February 15, 1986 England lost to Scotland 6:33 at Murrayfield Stadium ; it was the clearest Scottish victory in 102 previous encounters and the clearest English defeat in more than a hundred years.

In the 1980s, the associations of Australia and New Zealand pushed the idea of introducing a world championship . The RFU and the associations of the other Home Nations initially spoke out against it, fearing a weakening of the amateur status. When the French and South African associations also voted in favor at the decisive IRB meeting in March 1985, RFU President John Kendall-Carpenter changed his mind and thus helped the idea to break through. Australia and New Zealand organized the first World Cup in 1987 together. England was drawn into group A together with Australia, Japan and the USA . After the 6:19 start defeat against Australia, clear wins against the other two teams followed. In the quarter-finals in Brisbane , the team failed 3:16 to Wales.

England versus Argentina during the 1990 South American tour

During the Five Nations 1989, England denied tournament winners France the Grand Slam after an 11-0 home win, but missed the title themselves when they lost to Wales in their last game. At the Five Nations 1990 , winning the tournament seemed to be within reach after three wins, but the decisive away game in Murrayfield was surprisingly lost 7:13, which in turn gave the Scots the Grand Slam. These missed opportunities, however, formed the prelude to a renaissance of English rugby, which was reflected in a significantly higher profit rate in the following years. Responsible for this was a new generation of players around Will Carling , Jeremy Guscott , Jason Leonard and Rory Underwood . At the Five Nations 1991 , England secured their first title win since 1980, again with a Grand Slam. In the same year England was the nominal host of the 1991 World Cup , which was played in all Five Nations countries. The team just lost to New Zealand at the start of the group stage and then won convincingly against Italy and the USA. After victories in the quarter-finals against France and in the semi-finals against Scotland, the English faced the Australians in the final, to whom they lost 6:12.

A year later, the English confirmed their newfound strength with another Grand Slam in the Five Nations 1992 . In the same year, the Springboks, who lacked match practice due to the boycott that had just been lifted, were defeated unusually clearly with 33:16 in Twickenham. In 1994 the success over the Springboks was repeated, this time away in Pretoria . The Five Nations 1995 won England with the third Grand Slam within five years, which was due in particular to the outstanding performance of Rob Andrew in the kicks. Before the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, the English were one of the top favorites. In the group stage they defeated Argentina, Italy and Samoa , albeit very tightly in places. In the quarter-finals, the English managed to take revenge for their defeat in the final in 1991 and beat the Australians with 25:22. In the semifinals, however, they lost to the New Zealanders relatively clearly with 29:45; The game for third place against France was also lost.

From professionalization to world championship title

In August 1995 the International Rugby Board lifted all restrictions on player payment, ushering in the professional era of rugby union. At the Five Nations 1996 England managed to defend their title with a Triple Crown. In July of the same year, the RFU signed an exclusive contract with British Sky Broadcasting , according to which England's home games should only be broadcast on the pay-TV channel Sky. The associations of the other participating countries felt taken by surprise and announced that they would no longer compete against England if their demands for a fair contract with all parties were not met. After closed-door negotiations, England was re-admitted in September 1996 after the RFU had promised to share the proceeds for ten years. In 1997 and 1998 England managed two more Triple Crowns in the Five Nations, but missed the tournament victory after losing to France.

Former international Clive Woodward , who took up the post of coach in September 1997, should lead England to great success. But initially little of this was felt, because in mid-1998 the RFU was again embroiled in a heated argument. The clubs of the English Premiership - especially Bath Rugby and the Northampton Saints - refused to release their players for the national team. They were protesting against the association, with which they had not come to an agreement on the finances and match dates of the European cup competitions. For the summer tour to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa Woodward had to do without almost all regular players, what the Australian Rugby Union described as the "greatest betrayal since Gallipoli ". The trip to the southern hemisphere was given the unflattering nickname Tour of Hell ("Tour of Hell") after three clear defeats . The 0: 76 defeat against Australia on June 6, 1998 is by far the highest for England.

Three weeks before the start of the Five Nations in 1999 , England faced expulsion from the tournament again as the RFU questioned the 1996 agreement. The Five Nations Committee responsible for the organization threatened to replace the team with Italy, which was planned for the following year anyway. After just one day of negotiations, the parties to the dispute were able to agree to settle the matter amicably at a later date. The tournament then went on as planned, with England missing the tournament win and Grand Slam in an extremely dramatic way: In the last minute of the final game, Welshman Scott Gibbs scored the decisive attempt, which was increased by Neil Jenkins . Wales won 32:31 and the tournament victory went to Scotland. At the 1999 World Cup in Wales, the English did not convince. They won clearly against Italy and Tonga in the group stage, but had to admit defeat to New Zealand and play an additional game in the round of hope. In this Fiji could be defeated, but after the quarter-finals against South Africa, the tournament was already over for the English.

Victory celebration in Trafalgar Square after winning the world championship in 2003

With the admission of Italy in 2000, the annual tournament changed to today's Six Nations . England immediately won the first edition in the new format, but missed the desired Grand Slam with a loss in their last game against Scotland. The 2001 tournament ended similarly; this time it was Ireland that prevented the English Grand Slam in the last game. The decision was not made until October, as several games had to be postponed by half a year because of the foot and mouth disease in Ireland. In 2002 England had to leave the tournament victory to France, but achieved something historic when it beat all three of the greats in the southern hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) within 14 days at the End-of-year Internationals in November. The Springboks suffered the clearest defeat in their history to date. The Six Nations 2003 was followed by the first Grand Slam since 1995, the twelfth overall. In June of the same year England defeated the Wallabies and the All Blacks each away. With these successes, the team sat at the top of the world rankings for the first time .

Before the 2003 World Cup in Australia, the Englishmen led by Captain Martin Johnson were among the most popular favorites. In the group stage, they won the games against Georgia , South Africa, Samoa and Uruguay, in some cases clearly superior. In the quarter-finals Wales were defeated 28:17, in the semi-finals France 24: 7. After all, they faced the hosts in the final in Sydney . After regular time it was 14:14 a draw. A few seconds before the end of extra time, Jonny Wilkinson scored the decisive three points with a dropkick to make the final score 20:17 and secured England their first world title. Two weeks later, around 750,000 people gave the team a triumphant welcome in Trafalgar Square , London. The players have received numerous awards from the IRB, including “Team of the Year”, Clive Woodward as “Coach of the Year” and Jonny Wilkinson as “Player of the Year”. Due to the excellent performance before and during the World Cup, the team received the Laureus Award in 2004 in the “ Best Team of the Year ” category .

Two World Cup final defeats

England versus the All Blacks, 2006
The English team preparing for the 2007 World Cup
England versus Scotland at Six Nations 2016

After this great success, several important players announced their resignation, which immediately had a negative effect. England only came third at the Six Nations 2004 . The majority of the test matches against teams from the southern hemisphere were also disappointing, which is why world champion coach Clive Woodward announced his resignation in early September 2004. His successor Andy Robinson did not manage to stabilize the team, because in 2005 and 2006 they only finished fourth at the Six Nations. In 2006 nine out of twelve test matches were lost, one of the worst annual results in the history of the national team. Among other things, Argentina won for the first time in Twickenham on November 11th. The RFU then replaced Robinson with Brian Ashton , who had previously looked after the Irish national team.

England finished the Six Nations 2007 in an appealing third place, but suffered a historic 13:43 defeat against Ireland on February 24th at Croke Park in Dublin - the same as the worst result against this team to date. For a long time it seemed as if Ashton would not be able to build a new powerful team, especially since two test matches each against South Africa and France were lost in the summer, sometimes quite significantly. According to some experts, it was even questionable whether the defending champions at the 2007 World Cup would even survive the group stage. A 36-0 loss to South Africa seemed to reinforce this view. The team led by captain Jonny Wilkinson then turned out to be a surprise of the tournament. First, it qualified for the quarter-finals with victories over the USA, Samoa and Tonga. After narrow but unexpected victories against Australia and hosts France, the English faced the South Africans again in the final. In a very defensive game you had to admit defeat with 6:15.

A mixed Six Nations 2008 moved the RFU in April 2008 to replace Brian Ashton and instead to sign the former team captain Martin Johnson as national coach. This step was very controversial because Johnson had no experience as a coach at the time. He initially struggled to build on his successes as a player. After two and a half years in office, England won the 2011 Six Nations tournament . At the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, the team was drawn as a relatively easy opponent. She finished the group stage with four wins against Argentina, Georgia, Romania and Scotland in first place, but then failed in the quarter-finals to France. The team also made negative headlines off the field: The Sun had revealed that four players had partied a night in a bar in the tourist town of Queenstown . Manu Tuilagi was arrested by police after jumping off a ferry into Auckland Harbor while on a sponsored excursion . Eventually, three other players apologized for making suggestive remarks to a hotel employee in Dunedin .

The hapless Johnson was followed by Stuart Lancaster in March 2012. The English ended the year on a high note when they beat World Champions New Zealand on December 1, 38:21. They dominated almost at will and played the All Blacks, who had previously been undefeated for 20 games, literally against the wall. At the Six Nations 2013 , England ended up in second place behind Wales, as in the previous year, after losing the chance of the first Grand Slam since 2003 with a 3:20 defeat in Cardiff. For the tour to South America in June 2013, Lancaster nominated an "experimental" team with relatively inexperienced players. He managed to beat Argentina twice in a row away for the first time in 32 years. In 2014 and 2015, England finished the Six Nations in second place, behind Ireland in each case. England hosted the 2015 World Cup but was nowhere near meeting the public's high expectations. The team had been drawn into a " death group " with Australia and Wales. It won against Fiji and Uruguay, but lost the other two games and was eliminated in the group stage.

After this great disappointment, the Australian Eddie Jones became the first foreigner to take over as coach in November 2015. He immediately put the national team back on the road to success by winning the Six Nations 2016 including the Grand Slam. England remained undefeated throughout 2016, including three straight away games against Australia in June. Five months later, in November, the fourth win over Australia in a year followed in Twickenham. The team also broke the world record of 18 test match wins in a row when they beat Scotland with a record 61:21 at the 2017 Six Nations . The series broke with the subsequent defeat against Ireland, but it was enough for another tournament victory. Later in the year three wins in a row against Argentina. In 2018 the English suffered six defeats in a row, but they also managed two wins against South Africa and the sixth consecutive victory against Australia.

Before the start of the 2019 World Cup in Japan, England was once again one of the favorites for the title. In the group stage the team won against Tonga, the USA and Argentina. The last group game against France was canceled due to Typhoon Hagibis and counted as a 0-0 draw. England won in the quarter-finals against Australia with 40:16 and could thus retaliate for the early elimination at the 2015 World Cup. Then they met in the semifinals on the defending champion and top favorite New Zealand, which they could dominate throughout the game and defeated 19: 7. In the final, however, England failed to break through against the Springboks and, as in the final twelve years earlier, they lost to South Africa (12:32). Since the 1999 World Cup, this was the fourth meeting in the knockout phase that England lost to South Africa.

Jersey, logo and nickname

England versus Scotland during the 2007 Calcutta Cup
The red rose of the House of Lancaster
Jonny Wilkinson training with the English team at Twickenham Stadium, 12 August 2009
The Pumas defeat England (in white and red) in Twickenham, November 2006
England (in black) versus Argentina during the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup in New Zealand

England traditionally plays in white jerseys with white trousers and mostly dark blue socks. The logo on the shirt is a red rose, instead of the three lions on the soccer team and cricket team shirts . Jersey supplier is Canterbury and the main sponsor is currently O 2 . The away shirt is usually red or dark gray (called "anthracite"); before the introduction of the gray jersey, red was the traditional second team color. Dark blue was also used before that and was reintroduced for the 2016/17 season. Used during the 2009 End-of-Year Internationals, purple was borrowed from the traditional colors of the original English sports suits from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. During the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, the away shirt was black for the first time.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) designed the logo of the national team in 1871 before the first match against Scotland in Edinburgh. She chose a red rose - presumably Lancaster's - as the team logo. The national team's jersey was borrowed from the one worn at rugby school games . The design and the standardization in the representation of the rose - which was represented in different variants until 1920 - is attributed to Alfred Wright, an employee of the RFU. Wright's design probably remained in use until the 1990s with few changes. The representation of the rose wasn't changed until 1997 when Nike became the official kit supplier.

In 2003, the national team initially wore a tight-fitting jersey. They wanted to make it as difficult as possible for opponents to hold on to the shirt during the game. The home and away kits for the 2007 season were launched on May 15. The material was better made than the shirt from 2003. A clear red pattern on the white background formed a St. George's cross over the left shoulder , and a redesigned away jersey (dark blue instead of red) led to criticism, as the red St. George cross instead of the traditional one Rose should be emphasized. The new shirt was worn for the first time in England's home game against Wales on August 4, and the away shirt was worn for the first time in the game against France on August 18.

England's earlier home shirt was white with a red stripe around the neck and the away shirt was black (which attracted much criticism for its resemblance to New Zealand's well-known All Blacks shirt). A special jersey reminiscent of the one from 1910 was worn by the players in the 2010 Six Nations during the game against Wales to mark the 100th anniversary of Twickenham. Today's kit for the 2019-20 season is made by Canterbury. It consists of plain white pants and a plain white shirt with red stitching on top. The current away shirt is dark gray and features the same embossed George cross. The pants are also dark gray. The socks are dark gray with a white stripe on top.

Shirt suppliers and sponsors

Since the professionalization of rugby union, the following jersey suppliers and sponsors have appeared:

Period Outfitter sponsor
? -? EnglandEngland Bukta -
1991-1997 EnglandEngland Cotton Traders BT Cellnet (1996-2001)
1997-2012 United StatesUnited States Nike O 2
2012-2020 New ZealandNew Zealand Canterbury of New Zealand
since 2020 EnglandEngland Umbro

In July 2020, the Rugby Football Union listed the following sponsors and partners on its official website: O 2 , British Airways, Canterbury, Quilter, Sky, Guinness, Mitsubishi, IBM, Irwin Mitchell, NatWest, Dove, RedBull, Eden Park, Gilbert , Greene King, Persil, Simply Health, Virgin Active, Tyrells, Adidas, Bollinger, Bremont, Britvic, CBRE, Kings, Majestic, Optimum, Nutrition and Rhino.

Stages

Aerial view of London's Twickenham Stadium

Twickenham in south west London is the largest rugby stadium in the world. In the early years, the English national team played their home games in various stadiums around the country before Twickenham became their home stadium in 1910. After sold-out games at Crystal Palace against New Zealand in 1905 and South Africa in 1906, the Rugby Football Union saw the value of having its own rugby stadium and came to an agreement with cricketer and businessman Billy Williams to find a home for English rugby. The land for the stadium was purchased in 1907 for £ 5,572, 12 shillings and 6 pence and construction began the following year.

The first test match at Twickenham Stadium took place on January 15, 1910 between England and Wales. The home team won the game 11: 6 and defeated the Welsh for the first time since 1898. The stadium was expanded in 1927 and again in 1932. In the 1990s, new grandstands were added to the north, east and west. In 2005/06 a grandstand was added to the south, increasing the stadium's capacity to 82,000 spectators. England played their first test match at the redeveloped Twickenham Stadium on November 5, 2006 against the All Blacks.

England has played its home games almost exclusively at Twickenham Stadium for over a century, but also plays sporadically in other stadiums: 1997 and 2009 at Old Trafford in Manchester , in 1998 twice at Kirklees Stadium in Huddersfield , and in 1992 at the old Wembley Stadium . The playing field in Twickenham received a hybrid turf in June 2012 , which is considered particularly hard-wearing when wet.

Until 1910, the English national team played in numerous stadiums all over the country:

Test matches

England ranked in world rugby since October 10, 2003

England have won 426 of their 768 test matches for a win rate of 55.47%. England's test matches statistics against all nations, in alphabetical order, are as follows (as of October 2020):

country Games Won undecided
eliminated 		Lost % Victories
ArgentinaArgentina Argentina 24 19th 1 4th 79.17
AustraliaAustralia Australia 51 25th 1 25th 49.02
Barbarians 18th 10 0 8th 55.56
FijiFiji Fiji 7th 7th 0 0 100
FranceFrance France 106 58 7th 41 54.72
GeorgiaGeorgia Georgia 2 2 0 0 100
IrelandIreland Ireland 136 79 8th 49 58.09
ItalyItaly Italy 27 27 0 0 100
JapanJapan Japan 2 2 0 0 100
CanadaCanada Canada 6th 6th 0 0 100
New ZealandNew Zealand New Zealand 42 8th 1 33 19.05
New ZealandNew Zealand New Zealand Māori 4th 2 0 2 50.00
NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands 1 1 0 0 100
Pacific Islanders Pacific Islanders 1 1 0 0 100
President's Overseas XV 1 0 0 1 0.00
RomaniaRomania Romania 5 5 0 0 100
SamoaSamoa Samoa 8th 8th 0 0 100
ScotlandScotland Scotland 138 76 19th 43 55.07
South AfricaSouth Africa South Africa 43 15th 2 26th 34.88
TongaTonga Tonga 3 3 0 0 100
UruguayUruguay Uruguay 2 2 0 0 100
United StatesUnited States United States 6th 6th 0 0 100
Wales Wales 135 64 12th 59 47.41
total 768 426 51 291 55.47

It does not include games against various national teams as part of the overseas tours of the amateur era, as well as encounters with non-members that are not officially recognized by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and who have not been granted full status as test matches for a long time - not even retrospectively. While the games in the context of the Victory Internationals are not considered test matches, the RFU, unlike other associations, recognizes all encounters with the Barbarians as test matches.

Rivalries with other national teams

The first test match worldwide: England versus Scotland on March 27, 1871 in Edinburgh
The first test match between England and France on March 22, 1906 in Paris
The first test match between England and Australia on January 9th 1909 at Blackheath

In particular , the English have a great rivalry with the national teams of the neighboring British Home Nations . The first test match ever took place against Scotland in 1871 and since 1879 both teams have been competing for the Calcutta Cup , the oldest trophy in international sport. Of the 138 games so far, England won 76, Scotland 43 and they drew 19 times. The teams have met twice at World Cups (1991 and 2011), with England winning both games. Also worth mentioning is the test match for the Calcutta Cup in 1938. It was the first ever televised rugby game and was broadcast on the BBC .

England and France have met 106 times so far, with England winning 58 test matches and France 41, plus seven draws. At world championships, both teams have played against each other five times; England victorious three times and France twice. The game between the two teams is dubbed Le Crunch in the media and among fans in England and France alike . England and France are the most successful national teams in the northern hemisphere to date, especially at world championships. Both teams almost always reached the final of world championships alternately (only in 1995 and 2015 teams from the southern hemisphere made the tournament victory among themselves). England have made it into the final four times, with one tournament victory, and France three times, so far without a tournament victory; at a total of nine world championships so far. Both countries also have the two most financially strong rugby union leagues worldwide (the English Premiership and the French Top 14 ).

England and Ireland have played against each other in 136 test matches so far, with England being successful 79 times and Ireland 49 times, plus eight draws. The two teams have not yet met at world championships. Since 1988 they have been playing for the Millennium Trophy , which was donated for the 1000th anniversary of the city of Dublin . England have won the trophy 20 times and Ireland 13 times so far. England and Wales have played 135 test matches so far, of which England won 64 and Wales 59, the other twelve games ended in a draw. The two teams have played against each other three times at World Cups, with England winning one and Wales two, most recently in 2015. After England, Wales is the most successful nation in terms of Six Nations titles.

Like the other established rugby nations in the northern hemisphere, England also has a rivalry with the “big” national teams of the southern hemisphere. England met teams from the southern hemisphere in all of their four finals (twice Australia and South Africa). They played two finals against the Wallabies: 1991 and 2003, with England winning the latter. In 2007 and 2019 they met the Springboks, but lost both times. England have only won one World Cup against South Africa: in the group stage in 2003. So far, they have played four games at world championships against the All Blacks, with England winning the semi-finals in 2019. On the other hand, the World Cup record against the Wallabies is more balanced: England won four out of seven games and Australia three. An additional aspect in the duel with the Wallabies is due to the strong sporting rivalry between Australia and England, which has existed since the late 19th century and which also has a special status in other sports (especially cricket and the Commonwealth Games ). England has played against Australia since 1997 for the Cook Cup (named after James Cook ) and against New Zealand since 2008 for the Hillary Shield (named after Edmund Hillary , who died in 2008).

successes

World championships

England received the Webb Ellis Cup in 2003

England has participated in every world cup so far and has received the Webb Ellis Cup , the trophy of the four-year rugby union world cup , once: at the fifth edition in 2003 in Australia. This makes England the first and so far only rugby team in the northern hemisphere to win the title. At the first World Cup in 1987, England was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Wales. At the 1991 World Cup, England advanced to the final, but lost to Australia. In 1995 England made it to the semi-finals, but lost to New Zealand and also lost the game for third place against France. At the 1999 World Cup, England lost to the Springboks in the quarter-finals. The greatest success came in 2003 when they beat hosts Australia in the final. In 2007 they lost to South Africa in the final. In 2011, England were eliminated from France in the quarter-finals, at the 2015 home World Cup after the group stage. In 2019, the result of 2007 was repeated when they lost to South Africa in the final.

Home Nations / Five Nations / Six Nations

The Calcutta Cup is one of the oldest trophies in international rugby and has been played between England and Scotland since 1879

England's only annual tournament is the Six Nations, where the team competes against five other European teams: France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The Six Nations began in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship, which England could win directly with a Triple Crown, a victory against all other Home Nations . England won 29 titles, more than any of the other participating nations; there are also ten shared victories. The longest series without a title stretched over 18 years from 1892 to 1910. So far, a Grand Slam has been achieved 13 times , that is, a triple crown and an additional victory against France in the course of a tournament. As part of the Six Nations, England plays against Scotland for the Calcutta Cup , introduced in 1879, and since 1988 against Ireland for the Millennium Trophy . The games between England and France are called "Le Crunch".

  • 29 single victories (1883, 1884, 1892, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1937, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2020)
  • 10 shared victories (1886, 1890, 1912, 1920, 1932, 1939, 1947, 1954, 1960, 1973)
  • 13 Grand Slams (1913, 1914, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1957, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2003, 2016)
  • 26 Triple Crowns (1883, 1884, 1892, 1913, 1914, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1934, 1937, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2014, 2016, 2020)

More test matches

During the amateur era, England toured abroad for months in order to compete against other national teams as well as against regional selections and club teams. Touring national teams were also received in England. The tours according to old tradition came to a standstill around the year 2000, as the professionalization of the sport hardly left time for them (exceptions are the tours of the British and Irish Lions that take place every four years ). Today there are two time slots available every year for test matches against teams from the southern hemisphere and other teams outside the Six Nations. England usually travels to the southern hemisphere for the Mid-year Internationals in June , and hosts the End-of-year Internationals in November. Since 1997 England has played against Australia for the Cook Cup and since 2008 against New Zealand for the Hillary Shield .

Olympic games

England was represented twice in Olympic tournaments.

player

Current squad

The following players make up the roster during the Six Nations 2020 :

Back line (backs)

player position team International matches
Willi Heinz Half of the crowd Gloucester RFC 9
Ben Youngs Half of the crowd Leicester Tigers 95
Owen Farrell (C)Captain of the crew Interconnects Saracens 79
George Ford Interconnects Leicester Tigers 65
Jacob Umaga Interconnects Wasps RFC 0
Ollie Devoto Inner three-quarters Exeter Chiefs 1
Fraser Dingwall Inner three-quarters Northampton Saints 0
Jonathan Joseph Inner three-quarters Bath rugby 47
Manu Tuilagi Inner three-quarters Leicester Tigers 40
Elliot Daly Outer three quarters Saracens 39
Jonny May Outer three quarters Leicester Tigers 52
Ollie Thorley Outer three quarters Gloucester RFC 0
George Furbank Goalkeeper Northampton Saints 0
Anthony Watson Goalkeeper Bath rugby 42

Striker (forwards)

player position team International matches
Tom Dunn hooker Bath rugby 0
Jamie George hooker Saracens 45
Luke Cowan-Dickie pier Exeter Chiefs 21st
Ellis Genge pier Leicester Tigers 14th
Joe Marler pier Harlequins 68
Kyle Sinckler pier Harlequins 31
Will Stuart pier Bath rugby 0
Mako Vunipola pier Saracens 58
Harry Williams pier Exeter Chiefs 18th
Charlie Ewels Second row striker Bath rugby 12th
Maro Itoje Second row striker Saracens 34
George Kruis Second row striker Saracens 41
Joe Launchbury Second row striker Wasps RFC 62
Courtney Lawes Second row striker Northampton Saints 81
Alex Moon Second row striker Northampton Saints 0
Ben Earl Winger Saracens 0
Tom Curry Winger Sale Sharks 19th
Ted Hill Winger Worcester Warriors 1
Lewis Ludlam Winger Northampton Saints 6th
Sam Underhill Winger Bath rugby 15th

Known players

Edgar Mobbs (before 1917)
Ronald Poulton (1911)
Wavell Wakefield (1922)

15 former English players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame for their outstanding performance :

player position admission
William Percy Carpmael striker 2010
Alan Rotherham Half-player 2010
Harry Vassall striker 2010
Martin Johnson Second row striker 2011
John Kendall-Carpenter striker 2011
Alfred Hamersley striker 2013
Jason Leonard pier 2014
Bill Beaumont Second row striker 2014
Edgar Mobbs Outer three quarters 2015
Ronald Poulton Outer three quarters 2015
Wavell Wakefield Winger 2015
Lawrence Dallaglio Flanker , number eight 2016
Jeremy Guscott Inner three-quarters 2016
Jonny Wilkinson Connector , inner three quarters 2016
Rob Andrew Connection half 2017

Also inducted into the Hall of Fame were William Webb Ellis (according to legend, the inventors of rugby), the Rugby School (the private school where the game was developed) and world champion coach Clive Woodward . World Rugby named an English player as Player of the Year: Jonny Wilkinson (2003).

Choice of players

While the RFU is responsible for the national team, the national players have been contractually bound to their clubs in the English Premiership since the professionalization of rugby sport in 1995 . Since then, they have been part of a power struggle club v country ("Verein gegen Land") between the clubs and the RFU. This conflict first became apparent in 1998 when some of the clubs refused to provide players for the national team's tour to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. During this Tour of Hell ("Tour of Hell") England lost with second choice players in all four Test matches, including a 76-0 defeat against Australia. The English clubs also withdrew from the Heineken Cup in 1998/99 after no agreement on match dates and finances could be reached with the RFU.

In 2001 some of the clubs founded the organization "England Rugby" with the RFU in order to bring the league operations in line with the national team. Both sides agreed to reduce the number of league games and test matches for key players (a group of 50 to 60 players named by the RFU) in order to prevent injuries and overload. In return for players on loan, the clubs received compensation payments from the RFU. This agreement is considered to pave the way for the national team's success at the 2003 World Cup . Clive Woodward resigned in 2004 after seven years as national coach after he did not get the players he needed: I wanted more from the union - more training days with the players, more influence over the way they were treated - and ended up with less . ("I wanted more from the association - more training days with the players, more influence over the way they were treated - and ended up with less.") His successor, Andy Robinson , made the lack of control over the international players his unsuccessful record Team responsible. Brian Ashton , who took over from Robinson as coach, announced his squad for the 2007 Six Nations early on in the hope that the clubs would not play a league game in the week before a test match. The RFU and the Premiership clubs then decided on an agreement similar to the one in 2001, which provides national players from the clubs for the national team before test matches.

Player statistics

Martin Johnson (2007)
Jonny Wilkinson (2015)
Jason Leonard (2018)

Below are the main stats that affect England's players. The players marked with * are still active and can continue to improve.

(As of October 2020)

Most national team games
rank Surname Period Games
01 Jason Leonard 1990-2004 114
02 Ben Youngs * 2010-2020 100
03 Dylan Hartley 2008-2018 097
04th Dan Cole * 2010-2019 095
05 Jonny Wilkinson 1998-2011 091
06th Lawrence Dallaglio 1995-2007 085
07th Courtney Lawes * 2009-2020 085
08th Rory Underwood 1984-1996 085
09 Danny Care 2008-2018 084
10 Owen Farrell * 2012-2020 084
Most games as captain
rank Surname Period Games
01 Will Carling 1988-1996 59
02 Chris Robshaw 2012-2015 42
03 Martin Johnson 1998-2003 39
04th Dylan Hartley 2012-2018 30th
05 Owen Farrell * 2018-2020 24
06th Lawrence Dallaglio 1997-2004 22nd
07th Bill Beaumont 1978-1982 21st
08th Steve Borthwick 2008-2010 21st
09 Martin Corry 2005-2007 17th
10 Phil Vickery 2002-2008 15th
Most points scored
rank Surname Period Points
01 Jonny Wilkinson 1998-2011 1179
02 Owen Farrell * 2012-2020 0923
03 Paul Grayson 1995-2004 0400
04th Rob Andrew 1985-1997 0396
05 George Ford * 2014-2020 0308
06th Toby Flood 2006-2013 0301
07th Jonathan Webb 1987-1993 0296
08th Charlie Hodgson 2001-2012 0269
09 Dusty Hare 1974-1984 0240
10 Rory Underwood 1984-1996 0210
Most attempts made
rank Surname Period tries
01 Rory Underwood 1984-1996 49
02 Ben Cohen 2000-2006 31
03 Will Greenwood 1997-2004 31
04th Jeremy Guscott 1989-1999 30th
05 Jonny May * 2013-2020 29
06th Jason Robinson 2001-2007 28
07th Dan Luger 1998-2003 24
08th Josh Lewsey 1998-2007 22nd
09 Chris Ashton * 2010-2019 20th
10 Mark Cueto 2004-2011 20th

Trainer

Clive Woodward (2013)
Eddie Jones (2009)

England appointed a national coach for the first time in 1969: Don White. Eddie Jones is currently the English national coach after being hired in 2015.

Surname Years Wins in%
Don White 1969-1971 27
John Elders 1972-1974 38
John Burgess 1975 17th
Peter Colston 1976-1979 33
Mike Davis 1979-1982 63
Dick Greenwood 1983-1985 24
Martin Green 1985-1987 36
Geoff Cooke 1988-1994 72
Jack Rowell 1994-1997 72
Clive Woodward 1997-2004 71
Andy Robinson 2004-2006 41
Brian Ashton 2006-2008 55
Rob Andrew 2008 0
Martin Johnson 2008-2011 55
Stuart Lancaster 2011-2015 61
Eddie Jones since 2015 78

Awards

The Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport voted the English national team in 2003 " World Team of the Year ". In the same year, the International Rugby Board, since 2014 World Rugby, named England “Team of the Year”. England was also named “ Team of the Year ” at the Laureus World Sports Awards (2004).

Swing low, sweet chariot

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot from The Jubilee Singers , 1873

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is a popular song with English fans - especially at home games in Twickenham. In the last game of the 1988 season against Ireland, Chris Oti put three of the English attempts. A group of students from the Douai Benedictine School sang the song - as is the tradition at school at games - on its third attempt and other fans in the stadium joined in. Since then, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot has been sung by rugby union fans at home English games. In 1991, the RFU's marketing director, Mike Coley, was tasked with finding a song for the upcoming World Cup. He preferred the song Jerusalem , which, however, was already used at the Rugby League World Cup 1989-1992 , whereupon he quickly changed his proposal to Swing Low . Different variants were recorded and the published version reached the top 40 of the British singles charts during the tournament . 2020 published the World Rugby Museum previously unknown archive material on the Swing Low is sung in Twickenham, as Martin Offiah (nicknamed "Chariots" for a pun with the original title of the film Chariots of Fire - Chariots of Fire - from the year 1981) plays during the 1987 Middlesex Sevens tournament . The director of the museum believes that the Twickenham crowd already knew the song, as it had been sung in rugby clubs since the 1960s with simple gestures that illustrate the lyrics.

In the course of the worldwide spread of the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd , the Rugby Football Union announced in June 2020 that it would investigate the use of the song by rugby supporters, as it is actually an African-American spiritual . Former rugby player Brian Moore and Prince Harry both argued that they should stop singing the song at rugby games. Martin Offiah campaigned shortly thereafter to keep the song and use it as an opportunity to educate English and rugby supporters of other nationalities about discrimination and the history of blacks in the UK. Former national player Maggie Alphonsi said: "I think it's good that the RFU is investigating this, but I don't think the song should be banned". Prime Minister Boris Johnson felt that the song should not be banned and one should look less at the symbols of discrimination.

literature

  • Bowker, Barry: England Rugby . Ed .: Cassell. 1978, ISBN 978-0-304-30214-7 .
  • Collins, Tony: A Social History of English Rugby Union . Ed .: Routledge. 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-47660-7 .
  • Farmer, Stuart: The Official England Rugby Miscellany . Ed .: Vision Sports Publishing. 2006, ISBN 978-1-905326-12-9 .
  • Morgan, Michael: Optimizing the structure of elite competitions in professional sport - lessons from rugby union . In: Managing Leisure . 7th edition. 2002, p. 41-60 , doi : 10.1080 / 13606710110117023 .
  • Palenski, Ron: Century in Black - 100 Years of All Black Test Rugby . Ed .: Hodder Moa Beckett Publishers. 2003, ISBN 978-1-86958-937-0 .
  • Tuck, Jason: The Men in White: Reflections on Rugby Union, the Media and Englishness . In: International Review for the Sociology of Sport . 38th edition. No. 2 , 2003, p. 177-199 , doi : 10.1177 / 1012690203038002003 .

Web links

Commons : England national rugby union team  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 6, 2020 in this version .