England Rugby Team

The history of the England national rugby team dates all the way back to 1871. Although the side lost their first ever test match (and the first test match ever played) against Scotland, they very quickly began to dominate the Home Nations Championship (now the Six Nations Championship) after it launched in 1883.

When the Rugby World Cup was founded in 1987, the England Rugby team were invited to take part in the tournament’s inaugural edition and they reached the quarter-final stage. Only four years later, in the next edition of the tournament, they reached the final. Sadly, they fell to Australia at their home ground of Twickenham.

However, the England national rugby union team soon entered into a golden era where they went from being ‘nearly men’ to champions. In 2003, the side conquered all who came before them in the Six Nations Championship and won every game in the competition, claiming the Grand Slam in the process. Following this, they went into the 2003 edition of the World Cup on a high and won the tournament in dramatic fashion when a Jonny Wilkinson drop goal sealed victory against Australia in extra time of the final.

Although the England Rugby team have never won the Rugby World Cup again, they have finished as the tournament’s runners-up twice more (2007 and 2019). In addition, they won the Grand Slam again in 2016 and won 18 tests in a row between 2016 and 2017.

Overall, the England Rugby team have now won an impressive 29 Six Nations Championships. Of these, 13 were Grand Slam victories and 26 saw them win the Triple Crown by beating Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They’ve also been the number-one ranked team in the world on a number of occasions.