Clubs
London has several teams playing rugby at the National League level, in levels 1-5:
Rugby union is one of the most popular sports, in terms of both participants and spectators in London. London has several of England's leading rugby union clubs, and the city is home to 11 teams playing in national leagues, and many regional amateur leagues regulated by the London and South East Division Rugby Football Union. However, several of these teams, due to necessity, have found homes at stadia outside the boundaries of the capital. The sport is well established, especially in the middle-class suburbs to the north and west of the city. Four of the twelve clubs in the Aviva Premiership have London origins.
In more recent years, a modern tradition has seen all four leading London clubs play out of Twickenham during the first round of the Premiership, in a double-header.
Barnes Rugby Football Club, formerly known simply as the Barnes Club, is a rugby union club which is claimed by some sources to be the world's first and oldest club in any code of football. The club, from Barnes in London, also played a major role in the early years of association football, and was one of the teams in the first ever game of football. Blackheath F.C. is the oldest open rugby club in the world. "Open" in this context means that membership was open to anyone, not merely those attending, or old boys from, a particular institution (eg a school, university or hospital). It is also the third-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Dublin University Football Club and Edinburgh Academical Football Club. The Blackheath club also helped organise the world's first rugby international (between England and Scotland in Edinburgh on 27 March 1871) and hosted the first international between England and Wales ten years later – the players meeting and getting changed at the Princess of Wales public house. Blackheath, along with Civil Service FC, is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union.
London has several teams playing rugby at the National League level, in levels 1-5:
The England national rugby union team play their home matches at Twickenham stadium during the Six Nations Championship, as well as the November inbound touring nations. The ground also hosted the 1991 Rugby World Cup final, where Australia defeated England. Twickenham hosts the final of the Anglo-Welsh Cup, and will host the Heineken Cup final for the fourth time in 2012. The stadium is also host to The Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge as well as the English school's Daily Mail Cup final. London was also home to the massive celebrations for the English rugby team when they returned home from Australia after winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup, where Jonny Wilkinson kicked a drop-goal in extra time. An estimated 750,000 gathered in Trafalgar Square to celebrate their arrival.