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England Rugby Football Club
Retired [X2] Albion Fae

The first recorded rugby international took place on the 27th of March, 1871, between England and Scotland. Scotland, in front of 4,000 spectators, won by 1 goal to nil through a converted try. The try was awarded after a 10 minute argument, leading to a famous aphorism by Dr. HH Almond, the Scottish umpire: "I must say, however, that when an umpire is in doubt, I think he is justified in deciding against the side which makes the most noise. They are probably in the wrong." Both sides also scored an unconverted try, which contributed nothing to the scoring.

By the time of the match, the RFU had not finished its first set of Laws, but that was immaterial; the match was played in Scotland, and therefore under Scottish Laws. They had their Green Book, and several points were agreed upon in advance, for example: the ball could not be taken up unless "absolutely bounding". If it was rolling or stationary, you had to kick it. No hacking-over or tripping up would be allowed, and so on. The argument was almost inevitable, and not at all unusual in those days. Halves were 50 minutes each, and both teams consisted of twenty players, but the general premise had been set and a rematch was organised for the next year, which was won by the English. In 1882, games had been organised against Ireland and Wales, and so finally a Four Nations tournament could be inaugurated, which England largely dominated for the first decade.

By the 1890s however, vicious infighting was developing between the northern and southern teams in England. The degenerate northerners had began allowing themselves a form of absence pay for work missed whilst playing rugby, something that went against the amateur spirit of the game as perceived by many in the south of England and in the colonies. In 1895, twenty of the top northern clubs met in the George Hotel in Huddersfield and decided to form a Northern Union, which later became known as the Rugby League. In doing so, the national squad was weakened, although the team managed to win the Championship in both 1897 and 1898, and the Welsh became the dominant force in the Four Nations.

From 1896 through 1903, each country won it twice, Scotland and Wales with two Triple Crowns, and Ireland with one. Wales did have a better overall winning record, but hardly dominated. In 1908 and 1909 they won back to back Triple Crowns, but England were recovering. They won the Championship in 1909, and then Wales won the first ever Four Nations Grand Slam in 1911. England won in 1912 and followed it with back to back Grand Slams in 1913 and 1914.

Meanwhile, the game had been spreading through the colonies of the British Empire ever since the first international in 1871. Tours to and from the likes of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa were organised, although few were regarded as internationals. The colonies were beginning to put forward some serious competition by the 1890s and in 1905, a New Zealand team toured the British Isles, routing England 15 - 0. Two more tours followed in the next 20 years, by which time the All Blacks were seen to be the best team in the world, with the 1924/25 team gaining the nickname "The Invincibles", most probably given to them by the press after winning all 32 matches on tour.

The English side fared little better against other southern hemisphere opposition, drawing with South Africa in the inaugural test between them in 1906, and losing to Australia in 1909. Although the French had been playing rugby since the 1870s, they were still very much a weak side (like that of Italy nowadays - perhaps an omen for the Six Nations in decades to come?). The Five Nations Championship got its name in 1910 when France joined England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the former Four Nations competition and the customary ten-match series between the five teams was first completed.

The first game between France and England resulted in a glorious 35 - 8 routing in 1906, and the French improved only marginally before World War I. By 1910, the English were also picking up in the Five Nations, finally recovering from the infamous split at the George Hotel, and remained the dominant team in the years before and after the First World War.

Once World War I was over, England resumed their dominance of European rugby for much of the inter war period, except during the mid 1920s, when the Scots took the ascendancy with some emphatic victories. England won five Grand Slams between the wars, and won the championship nine times. The French remained rather poor, and in 1932 were forced to drop out of the Five Nations tournament due to a lack of organisation at home, and the discovery that a number of their players had been paid by their clubs, breaking union rules. Tests against teams in the southern hemisphere remained the exception rather than the rule, and gave few clues as to who was the best team in the world. In 1935, England memorably beat the dominant All Blacks, thanks in part to Obolensky's famous try.

France returned to the Five Nations Championship in 1939, just before the outbreak of war. Due to the number of players fighting abroad, the Championship was postponed until after the conflict. France gradually improved in the following decade, finally winning the tournament in 1959, and the following three years. The England team were winning the occasional tournament, yet failing to establish any kind of supremacy, apart from in the mid 1950s. The 1960s saw the first regular tests with Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, with the southern hemisphere teams winning the vast majority of them.

The 1970s did not see an improvement in English fortunes, with the Welsh team becoming unstoppable in what they view as their Golden Age of rugby. Between 1969 and 1979, they won the Grand Slam three times and the Triple Crown six times, with only the French being able to offer much opposition. No one could stand up to the likes of Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, Phil Bennett, Graham Price to name but a few. The English lost five times in a row between 1975 and 1979, culminating in a 27 - 3 thrashing by the Welsh. Conversely, England somehow managed to beat the southern teams, with victories over South Africa in 1972, New Zealand in 1973 and Australia in 1976, albeit losing twice to them in previous weeks.

The early 1980s saw Rugby Union becoming more of an international sport, and for the first time England faced the likes of Romania, Japan and the United States. The English players were thankful for this, for the newcomers were often the only teams that could be beaten. Against everyone else, the England team lost more than they won, despite Bill Beaumont’s Grand Slam win in 1980.

In 1987 the inaugural World Cup was held. Disastrously, England lost to Wales in only the quarter finals (at this time the Welsh were well below their 1970s par). The following tournament closely resembled the 2003 finals, with England facing Australia for the Webb-Ellis Trophy, albeit at Twickenham, not Sydney. England lost to New Zealand in their pool, but successfully defeated France in the quarter-finals and Scotland in the semi-final (Gavin Hastings missing the easiest of penalty kicks to draw the game 9-9 at full-time). After coming under criticism (mostly from Australian wing David 'Campo' Campese) for playing dour kicking rugby dominated by the forwards, Will Carling's team suddenly opted for a running game in the final at Twickenham. This achieved few positive results, and England went down 12 - 6.

In the last decade of the century, the England team often had some of the best players on show, such as the Underwood brothers, Jeremy Guscott and Will Carling to name but a few. However, they never managed to make the step up to become a truly great team. In 1997 Clive Woodward stepped into the fold. England showed promise when they managed to draw 26-all with New Zealand at Twickenham (England gaining a massive 26-0 lead at half-time - what a comeback the Kiwis made!). But with dozens of injuries to key players and others crying off, the abortive tour down under saw a drastically under-strength England squad record 76 - 0 defeat to Australia.

A rethink was necessary, and Woodward began to assert his ideas of diligence, dedication and high levels of fitness, backed by considerable funding from the RFU (Rugby Football Union). Yet the killer touch was still lacking, and England were constantly labelled as 'bottlers' who couldn't win 'big games' or away from home. In the 1999 Five Nations, England had won every game, but when it came to the final match against Wales at Wembley (the Cardiff Arms Park had been demolished and the construction of the new Millennium Stadium was underway) England did in fact 'bottle it', Scott Gibbs scoring the deciding try, Wales winning the game 32 - 31, and Scotland winning the tournament overall. The 2000 Six Nations saw England do all the hard work again only to lose to Scotland at Murrayfield in the final game. The same happened in 2001, only losing to Ireland at the last hurdle at Lansdowne Road. In 2002, England were outplayed and out-thought tactically by the French, but this time the opposition deserved to win, and so 18 months before the 2003 World Cup began, the English were by no means the favourites for victory.

However, England's fortunes began to change when a very young squad (captained by Phil Vickery) successfully defeated the full-strength Argentinian team in Buenos Aires in the summer. It has come to be seen as a turning point in English rugby by many critics. In November, England successfully defeated New Zealand, Australia and South Africa at Twickenham in three weeks, the latter game proving to be a bit of a blood bath, with Corne Krige's men attempting to assault the England team rather than play any sort of rugby. Consequently England won the game 53 - 3, South Africa's worst defeat in their entire rugby history.

In 2003 England continued to dominate. For the first time since 1995, England won the Grand Slam clinching the greatest price in the Northern Hemisphere with an outstanding 42 - 6 victory over a talented Irish team at Lansdowne Road. This was followed by victories over Australia and New Zealand in their respective back gardens. England had never beaten Australia in Australia before, and had not won in New Zealand since 1973. Going into the World Cup, Woodward had established a well-run, totally professional, and often brilliant team, confident of victory. Woodward had created a squad of players that not only had a powerful set of forwards in the set pieces, but were also dynamic. The backs were also arguably England's greatest ever. Players like Iain Balshaw could only manage a spot on the bench, with the likes of Cohen, Robinson, Lewsey, Greenwood and Tindall in the starting line-up. Then came you know what...
New Team Page Beta
Player Ma St Ag Av Skills Inj G Cp Td It Cs Mvp SPP Cost  
1
Danny Grewcock
Treeman
3 6 1 10
Big Guy, Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Take Root, Thick Skull, Throw Team Mate
+MA
   2 0 0 0 3 1 11/ 140k
(118)k
  
2
Lawrence Dallaglio
Treeman
2 6 1 10
Big Guy, Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Take Root, Thick Skull, Throw Team Mate
   2 0 0 0 1 0 2/ 110k
(99)k
  
3
Steve Thompson
Treeman
2 6 1 10
Big Guy, Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Take Root, Thick Skull, Throw Team Mate
   2 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 110k
(99)k
  
4
Richard Hill
Pixie
8 1 3 6
Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Stunty, Very Long Legs
   2 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 60k
(100)k
  
5
Phil Christophers
Pixie
8 1 3 6
Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Stunty, Very Long Legs
   2 0 1 0 0 0 3/ 60k
(100)k
  
6
Ben Cohen
Pixie
8 1 3 6
Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Stunty, Very Long Legs
Catch
   2 0 2 0 0 0 6/ 90k
(130)k
  
7
Matt Dawson
Pixie
8 1 3 6
Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Stunty, Very Long Legs
   2 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 60k
(100)k
  
8
Josh Lewsey
Pixie
8 1 3 6
Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Stunty, Very Long Legs
   2 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 60k
(100)k
  
9
Mike Catt
Pixie
8 1 3 6
Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Stunty, Very Long Legs
   2 0 1 0 0 0 3/ 60k
(100)k
  
10
James Simpson-Daniel
Leprechaun
6 1 3 7
Dodge, Right Stuff, Strip Ball, Stunty
   2 0 0 0 0 1 5/ 60k
(80)k
  
11
Ollie Barkley
Leprechaun
6 1 3 7
Dodge, Right Stuff, Strip Ball, Stunty
   2 0 1 0 0 0 3/ 60k
(80)k
  
12
Mark Regan
Brownie
6 1 3 7
Dodge, Right Stuff, Stunty
   2 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 25k
(45)k
  
13
Martin Corry
Brownie
6 1 3 7
Dodge, Right Stuff, Stunty
   2 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 25k
(45)k
  
13 players  
Coach: SnakeSanders Re-Rolls (100k): 2  
Race: Albion Fae Fan Factor: 8  
Current Team Value: 0k Assistant Coaches: 0  
Treasury: 150k Cheerleaders: 0  
Team Value: 1100k Apothecary: No  

Games Played:2 (1/0/1) |TD Diff:3 (5 - 2) |Cas Diff:-1 (3/1/1 - 6/0/0)
Last Opponent: Muscle Mayhem