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Australia vs England
Match scheduled:
Date: 19-06-2010
Time: 09:30 until 11:30
June Internationals
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Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is very commonly sung at England fixtures — especially at Twickenham. The song arrived in the rugby canon through the Welsh male voice choirs who sang many spirituals. It was a popular rugby song at clubs during the 1950s and 1960s and was sung every year at Twickenham during the end-of-season all-day Middlesex Sevens tournament. During the 1970s the Twickenham crowd also sang it during England matches then coming into the last match of the 1988 season, against the Irish, England had lost 15 of their previous 23 matches in the Five Nations Championship. The Twickenham crowd had only seen one solitary England try in the previous two years and at half time against Ireland they were 0-3 down. During the second half a remarkable transformation took place and England started playing an expansive game many had doubted they were capable of producing. A 0-3 deficit was turned into a 35-3 win, with England scoring six tries.
In the 35-3 win, three of England's tries were scored by Chris Oti, a player who had made a reputation for himself that season as a speedster on the left wing. A group of boys from the Benedictine school Douai following a tradition at their school games sang Swing Low, Sweet Chariot whenever a try was scored. When Oti scored his second try, amused spectators standing close to the boys joined in, and when Oti scored his hat-trick the song was heard around the ground.[68][69] Since then Swing Low, Sweet Chariot became a song to sing at England home games,[70] in the same way that Fields of Athenry is sung in Dublin and Cwm Rhondda is sung at Cardiff. It has since became the anthem of the team as in 1991 the result of a plan of the then RFU marketing director Mike Coley for the team to launch a song leading up to that years Rugby World cup. He had wanted to use Jerusalem but it was used in the Rugby League cup final that year so the song was changed at short notice to Swing Low. there were a number of versions recorded including a 'rap' version with Jerry Guscott doing a solo. needless to say that was never released but the version released did reach the top 40 in the UK singles chart during the competition and was then adopted as the England rugby song.[71]
[edit] Strip
England have returned to the traditional all-white shirts, white shorts with navy and white socks. (The emblem on the shirts is a red rose, rather than the Plantagenet Three Lions displayed on the shirts of the England football and England cricket teams. The strip is manufactured by Nike and O2 is the shirt sponsor.[72] Red was the change strip, although prior to the introduction of the red strip, navy blue was used. Purple was used as the change strip as of the 2009 autumn internationals, reflecting the traditional colour of the original England track-suits from the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) had created the national side's emblem prior to an English team being sent to Edinburgh to play a Scottish side. A red rose was chosen to be the side’s emblem.[73] The white kit worn by the national team was taken from the kit used at Rugby School.[73] Alfred Wright, an employee of the Rugby Football Union, is credited with the standardisation and new design of the rose, which up until 1920 had undergone many variations in its depiction.[73] The Wright design is thought to have been used without minor alteration until the late 1990s.[73] It was not until 1997 that the rose was modernised when Nike became the official strip supplier.
In 2003 England first used a skin-tight strip. This was intended to make it more difficult for the opposition to grasp the shirt when tackling.[74] The home and away strips for 2007 were unveiled on 15 May that year. The materials used are superior, offering improved performance to the 2003 kit. However, a sweeping red mark on the base-white front which forms St George's Cross on the top left, and a changed away-strip (dark blue to red), have received criticism because it is felt that emphasis has been placed on St George's Cross at the expense of the traditional red rose.[75] The new strip was introduced in England's home game against Wales on 4 August, while the alternative strip was first used against France on 18 August.[76]
The current england home strip is white with a strip of red around the neck, and the away strip for the first time is purple, both kits have a ground breaking new technology in the form of a gripper print. A special strip was worn during the match versus Wales in the 2010 Six Nations Championship which replicated that worn in 1910 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Twickenham.
[edit] Record
[edit] Six Nations
England competes annually in the Six Nations Championship, which is played against five other European nations: France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. The Six Nations started out as the Home Nations Championship in 1883 which England won with a Triple Crown. England have won the title more times than any other nation by winning it outright 25 times, and sharing victory ten times. Their longest wait between championships was 18 years (1892–1910). During the Six Nations, England also contests the Calcutta Cup with Scotland (which England first won in 1880) and the Millennium Trophy with Ireland (which England first won in 1988). The matches between England and France are traditionally known as "Le Crunch." In the 2010 championship, England began with 30-17 victory over Wales on 6 |  |  |
