england rugby tour 1998

England's 1998 Tour from Hell to Australia, South Africa and New Zealand

• Huw Ricahrds

Twenty years on, the name still resonates. Talk of the Tour from Hell and there is rarely any doubt what is meant -- England's visit to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 1998.

It lives on in more than the game's folk memory. The Australia v England match at Lang Park, Brisbane on 6th June 1998 still sits in the record books. It was among the formative moments for a game still coming to terms with the acceptance of open professionalism three years earlier.

The outlines of this new world were emerging. At club level the Heineken Cup had just completed a third season and was facing its first English boycott, denying holders Bath their chance to defend the trophy.

The previous November had seen England define the model for what would soon become the standard autumn programme with four home tests on consecutive weekends, against Australia, New Zealand (twice) and South Africa.

That formidable schedule was the international bow for England's first full-time coach, Clive Woodward, appointed on the basis of a relatively thin resume, but offering the advantages of availability and willingness to commit himself fully to the post. And under the rules of reciprocity, it committed England to a corresponding away programme the following summer. As well as the tests, England also agreed to play three midweek matches, against New Zealand A, Academy and Maori.

It was, Woodward reckoned, 'The most gruelling seven-match series ever devised for an England team' and 'made even the fiercest Lions tour pale into insignificance'. It was, he thought 'challenging but doable, if you had the players in great shape and time to prepare for it.' But neither applied.

England had provided the bulk of the previous season's triumphant Lions squad in South Africa. This was followed by a crowded domestic season which saw claim a Triple Crown while the game's politicians battled for control in the corridors of Twickenham. Players had been in action more or less non-stop since September 1996. Some had played not far off 50 matches during the 1997-98 season.

Their need for a rest was blatantly evident. Star after star withdrew citing fatigue, injuries or both. England captain Lawrence Dallaglio, his back-row confreres Richard Hill and Neil Back, Lions leader Martin Johnson, centre Jeremy Guscott and all-but-indestructible prop Jason Leonard were only the biggest names on a long list of withdrawals.

Scrum-half Matt Dawson reckoned that 'nobody was thinking about what was best for the players, it was all about what was best for the clubs, the RFU and England'. He thought of withdrawing himself, but admitted that he was 'swayed by the offer of the captaincy'.

He was joined on tour by 36 other players. No fewer than 20 had yet to play for England, while only five had 10 caps or more. The Australians, who pointed out that they had sent a full-strength party north the previous autumn, were outraged.

Australian union president Dick McGruther, a gunboat diplomat even by the standards of Aussie officialdom, reckoned they were 'probably the most under-equipped group of Englishmen sent to Australia since the First Fleet' and invited his compatriots to Lang Park for a 'pommie thrashing'. Mark Ella thought it 'A joke and a waste of time'.

England did their best to accentuate the positive on arrival. Dawson managed to make a virtue of the crowded English programme, arguing that "The end of the domestic season wasn't that long ago, so the boys are extremely match-fit."

But Woodward admitted to being embarrassed at the long list of absentees, saying he hoped it would be a one-off. And he confessed in his memoirs to getting on the plane to Australia thinking that 'this is what is must feel to be a crash-test dummy'.

With Dawson ruled out by injury, Woodward named a team with five new caps -- Richmond wing Spencer Brown, Saracens centre Steve Ravenscroft, Gloucester scrum-half Scott Benton and two new back-rowers, Richard Pool-Jones of Stade Francais and Ben Sturnham of Saracens -- led by another Saracen, ball-handling number eight Tony Diprose.

Full-back Matt Perry started at centre for the only time in a distinguished England career, while prop Phil Vickery and outside-half Jonny Wilkinson, making his first start only a few weeks after leaving school, were winning only their second caps.

They would, tour manager Roger Uttley acknowledged, have to 'go out there and play their socks off. It is an enormous challenge." And in the opening stages, facing a full-strength Australian team in a half-full Lang Park, it looked as though they might rise to it. Prop Graham Rowntree later recalled: "We were in the game for the first 20 minutes. We were doing quite well, if defending a lot." Tackles by full-back Tim Stimpson, recalled after more than a year, thwarted Wallaby wings Joe Roff and Ben Tune.

It was 15 minutes before anyone scored, and only 6-0 after half an hour -- the difference the two penalties landed by Australia's Matt Burke while the 19 year-old Wilkinson missed what the agency report used on the BBC website reckoned to be 'two comfortable penalty chances'.

Nor did a 30th minute try by no 8 Toutai Kefu seem to presage a landslide. But with both Ravenscroft and Pool-Jones having head injuries stitched, the Wallabies ran in three more tries in the last seven minutes before the break. A clear lead turned in those few minutes into a landslide, 33-0 at half-time.

From then on, the only question was how many points Australia would score. The second half followed a similar pattern. England resisted for the first 16 minutes. Experienced Leicester centre Stuart Potter came on as a replacement, taking the number of debutants to six and wing Dominic Chapman, a prolific try-scorer in club rugby for Richmond, made it seven with Australia leading 47-0.

It was during the final 10 minutes that England caved in completely. The Wallabies ran in five more tries, with Tune and outside-half Stephen Larkham completing their hat-tricks. It ended 76-0, a new record for the heaviest defeat inflicted by one foundation union on another.

Diprose admitted post-match that 'There are a lot of disappointed guys in the dressing room and we are all shell-shocked." Rowntree recalled that 'There was nothing funny about the dressing room aferwards'. Woodward argued that "This is not a humiliation, just a freak result." He pointed out that "The Aussies lost by 60 points to South Africa last year and what this result means is that I've just undergone the biggest learning curve of my coaching career."

Wilkinson, who had turned 19 only a few weeks earlier, recalled in his autobiography that 'In the immediate aftermath of the thrashing, I felt desolate. ' There was a tearful phone call to his father, who 'Waited for the sniffing to stop, then encouraged me not to let the disappointment beat me, but to get up the next day and come back stronger'. He remembered his father offering similar advice five years earlier after he was left out of Surrey's under-14 team.

The BBC report speculated that some of the debutants 'may feel that they never want to pull on an England shirt again'. They would not be offered much choice in the matter. Four of them never did, Sturnham won two more caps, Ravenscroft and Brown one apiece. None played for England again after the end of the tour. Their combined total of 11 caps was outnumbered by the 16 eventually achieved by Australia's sole debutant, lock Tom Bowman.

England went on to lose 64-22 and 40-10 to the All Blacks before falling 18-0 to the Boks, also conceding 62 points to the Maoris. They ended their seven-match trip winless. Off-field discipline was not all it might be, with future England captain Lewis Moody delighted - if mortified looking back - to be crowned 'best shagger on tour' by his team-mates. As if all that were not enough, Woodward's father died while the team was in New Zealand.

It was, Woodward recalled, 'England's worst rugby nightmare'. Nascent international careers were destroyed by being launched, journalist Stephen Jones argued, with 'their true time at least two years in the future (if it was even then)'.

But as Rowntree argued, with England top of the world rankings in March 2002, 'You've got to have those experiences, if not quite as extreme as that, and it is about how you move on.' Wilkinson explained at the same time : "My motivation is making sure that I never feel the same way I did after the 76-0 defeat...All my preparation and work is a protection policy, if you like, to ensure that I never feel so powerless again."

Jones argued that in the longer term there was an element of good fortune for Woodward, still in the tricky early stages of his England coaching career. Nobody blamed him for losing when so patently underpowered. Instead Woodward earned sympathy for his personal loss and admiration - from fans and players, if not administrators - for a pointed gesture later in the tour when he booked the entire party out of an inadequate hotel in Cape Town, putting the considerable bill for switching them into the swish Mount Nelson Hotel onto his own credit card.

England's best team, Jones argued, would also have lost all four tests. All the evidence suggests that he was right. It was not just a matter of their best players being exhausted, but of the balance of power at the time.

In 30 matches matching the four home unions and the Tri-Nations between England's defeat of holders Australia in the quarter-final at the 1995 World Cup and their ending of the Springboks' 17-match winning run at Twickenham three and a half years later, the British and Irish quartet escaped defeat only once - England's 26-26 draw with the All Blacks at Twickenham in late 1997.

And they weren't just losing. Record hammerings, such as Ireland going down 63-15 to the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road and Scotland losing 68-10 to the Boks at Murrayfield the previous autumn, had become almost routine. The 76-0 hammering remains England's worst, but retained its currency as the heaviest beating inflicted by one foundation union on another for only three weeks, until Wales, with a team as depleted as the English XV at Brisbane, went down 96-13 to the Boks at Pretoria.

Nor was there any shame in losing to Australia. Almost exactly the same team, with the return of David Giffin at lock in place of Bowman the only change in the starting line-up, was to win the World Cup by beating France in Cardiff in late 1999.

Half-backs Larkham and George Gregan were still around to contest another World Cup final in 2003. Then, on a wet night in Sydney, Vickery and Wilkinson -- no longer a rookie miser of 'comfortable penalty chances', but the game's coolest executioner with the boot -- extracted full revenge for the misery inflicted in Brisbane.

Hell that earlier night at Lang Park may have been, but the damnation inflicted on Woodward and his team proved short-term, and arguably therapeutic, rather than permanent.

1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa

The 1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa was a series of matches played in June and July 1998 by England national rugby union team .

Touring party

Scrum-halves, loose-forwards.

The tour is often referred to in rugby culture as "The Tour of Hell" due to the number of heavy defeats suffered by the England team. This was caused principally because England fielded a roster of untested and uncapped players.

• Manager: Clive Woodward
• Assistant Manager:
• Captain: Matt Dawson

Tim Stimpson (Newcastle Falcons), Matt Perry (Bath), Nick Beal (Northampton Saints)

Josh Lewsey (Wasps), Spencer Brown (Richmond), Austin Healey (Leicester Tigers)

Tom Beim (Sale Sharks), Matt Moore (Sale Sharks), Paul Sampson (Wasps)

Stuart Potter (Leicester Tigers), Dominic Chapman (Richmond), Steve Ravenscroft (Saracens)

Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), Alex King (Wasps), Jos Baxendell (Sale Sharks).

Matt Dawson (Northampton Saints), Scott Benton (Gloucester), Peter Richards (London Irish)

Tony Diprose (Saracens), Steve Ojomoh (Bath), Richard Pool-Jones (Stade Francais Paris), Ben Sturnham (Saracens), Ben Clarke (Richmond), Pat Sanderson (Sale Sharks), Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers).

Dave Sims (Gloucester), Rob Fidler (Gloucester), Garath Archer (Newcastle Falcons), Danny Grewcock (Saracens)

Phil Vickery (Gloucester), Will Green (Wasps), Darren Crompton (Richmond), Graham Rowntree (Leicester Tigers), Duncan Bell (Sale Sharks), Tony Windo (Gloucester).

Richard Cockerill (Leicester Tigers), Phil Greening (Gloucester), George Chuter (Saracens)

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• ↑ "England tour selection angers Aussies" . BBC Sport. 13 May 1998.
• " Swing Low, Sweet Chariot "
• Mr. England

1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa

The 1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa was a series of matches played in June and July 1998 by England national rugby union team .

• 2.1 Full-back
• 2.2 Utilities
• 2.3 Wingers
• 2.4 Centres
• 2.5 Fly-halves
• 2.6 Scrum-halves
• 2.7 Loose-forwards
• 2.10 Hookers
• 3 References

The tour is often referred to in rugby culture as "The Tour of Hell" due to the number of heavy defeats suffered by the England team. This was caused principally because England fielded a roster of untested and uncapped players.

Touring party

• Manager: Clive Woodward
• Assistant Manager:
• Captain: Matt Dawson

Tim Stimpson (Newcastle Falcons), Matt Perry (Bath), Nick Beal (Northampton Saints)

Josh Lewsey (Wasps), Spencer Brown (Richmond), Austin Healey (Leicester Tigers)

Tom Beim (Sale Sharks), Matt Moore (Sale Sharks), Paul Sampson (Wasps)

Stuart Potter (Leicester Tigers), Dominic Chapman (Richmond), Steve Ravenscroft (Saracens)

Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), Alex King (Wasps), Jos Baxendell (Sale Sharks).

Scrum-halves

Matt Dawson (Northampton Saints), Scott Benton (Gloucester), Peter Richards (London Irish)

Loose-forwards

Tony Diprose (Saracens), Steve Ojomoh (Bath), Richard Pool-Jones (Stade Francais Paris), Ben Sturnham (Saracens), Ben Clarke (Richmond), Pat Sanderson (Sale Sharks), Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers).

Dave Sims (Gloucester), Rob Fidler (Gloucester), Garath Archer (Newcastle Falcons), Danny Grewcock (Saracens)

Phil Vickery (Gloucester), Will Green (Wasps), Darren Crompton (Richmond), Graham Rowntree (Leicester Tigers), Duncan Bell (Sale Sharks), Tony Windo (Gloucester).

Richard Cockerill (Leicester Tigers), Phil Greening (Gloucester), George Chuter (Saracens)

[2]

• ^ "England tour selection angers Aussies" . BBC Sport. 13 May 1998.
• " Swing Low, Sweet Chariot "
• Mr. England
• Use dmy dates from March 2014
• EngvarB from March 2014
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About: 1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa

The 1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa was a series of matches played in June and July 1998 by England national rugby union team.

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1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa explained

The 1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa was a series of matches played in June and July 1998 by England national rugby union team .

The tour is often referred to in rugby culture as "The Tour of Hell" due to the number of heavy defeats suffered by the England team. This was caused principally because England fielded a roster of untested and uncapped players - many of whom went on to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup five years later.

Scores and results list England's points tally first.

Touring party

• Manager: Clive Woodward
• Assistant Manager:
• Captain: Matt Dawson

Tim Stimpson (Newcastle Falcons), Matt Perry (Bath), Nick Beal (Northampton Saints)

Josh Lewsey (Wasps), Spencer Brown (Richmond), Austin Healey (Leicester Tigers)

Tom Beim (Sale Sharks), Matt Moore (Sale Sharks), Paul Sampson (Wasps)

Stuart Potter (Leicester Tigers), Dominic Chapman (Richmond), Steve Ravenscroft (Saracens)

Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), Alex King (Wasps), Jos Baxendell (Sale Sharks).

Scrum-halves

Matt Dawson (Northampton Saints), Scott Benton (Gloucester), Peter Richards (London Irish)

Loose-forwards

Tony Diprose (Saracens), Steve Ojomoh (Bath), Richard Pool-Jones (Stade Francais Paris), Ben Sturnham (Saracens), Ben Clarke (Richmond), Pat Sanderson (Sale Sharks), Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers).

Dave Sims (Gloucester), Rob Fidler (Gloucester), Garath Archer (Newcastle Falcons), Danny Grewcock (Saracens)

Phil Vickery (Gloucester), Will Green (Wasps), Darren Crompton (Richmond), Graham Rowntree (Leicester Tigers), Duncan Bell (Sale Sharks), Tony Windo (Gloucester).

Richard Cockerill (Leicester Tigers), Phil Greening (Gloucester), George Chuter (Saracens)

Notes and References

• Web site: Australia 76 England 0 . 6 June 1998. BBC Sport. 21 May 2014.
• News: England tour selection angers Aussies . BBC Sport. 13 May 1998.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from the Wikipedia article " 1998 England rugby union tour of Australasia and South Africa ".

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When England beat Australia 30 years ago and kickstarted a rugby revival

England went into 1988 on a run of five wins in five years of the Five Nations. They ended the year dreaming of glory

By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog

E ngland beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup final 15 years ago this week , but they were not in such great shape when the Wallabies arrived at Twickenham 30 years ago. England’s form in the mid-1980s was dire. In the five editions of the Five Nations between 1983 and 1987 they won just five matches out of 20, even picking up the wooden spoon twice in that run. Their poor showing at the 1987 World Cup was perhaps the nadir, the point where things simply could not get any worse.

And then came the green shoots of recovery. Appointing Geoff Cooke as manager and Roger Uttley as coach improved their results in the 1988 Five Nations : they lost by a single point in Paris and won a tight game at Murrayfield, but really got the juices flowing with their second-half performance against Ireland at Twickenham.

After trailing 3-0 at half-time, England scored six tries in a stunning 35-3 turnaround, with Chris Oti bagging a hat-trick. It is said to be the game where Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was properly adopted as an anthem at Twickenham as the previously bored crowd – England had scored just two tries in their previous three matches at the ground – were swept away by the expansive rugby before their eyes.

Another piece of the jigsaw was put in place before the Australia match when Will Carling was appointed England captain. Aged just 22, Carling was the youngest man to take the role for 57 years. He was told the appointment would be long-term – until the 1991 World Cup – but could easily have been sceptical. Since Bill Beaumont’s retirement in 1982, the captaincy had been chucked about like, well, a rugby ball. The press were unconvinced, Tony Bodley writing in the Express: “Carling has been handed the captaincy for three years. But he’ll he lucky to keep the job for three months if he’s treated anything like recent skippers.”

Australia had won their last four matches against England – including two victories earlier in 1988 – but their patchy form on their European tour gave the hosts a glimmer of hope. Defeats to London (10-21), Northern Division (9-15) and South-West Division (10-26) were far from ideal preparation, although Australia had bounced back with victories over the Midland Division (25-18) and the England Students (36-13).

England fielded three debutants at Twickenham – lock Paul Ackford, scrum-half Dewi Morris and winger Andrew Harriman – with Harriman the centre of attention. The Nigeria-born 24-year-old was labelled “the Playboy Prince” by the Mirror on the morning of the game due to his reportedly lavish lifestyle. His searing pace had already hurt Australia in their defeat to London and he was seen as the ideal replacement for the injured Oti.

Australia had not lost to England since 1982 and could call on a lot of experience. Only centre Brad Girvan was making his debut and the team led by Nick Farr-Jones had seven survivors from their 1984 Grand Slam tour of the British Isles .

England started the first half brightly but an Andrew Leeds try, converted by Lynagh, gave the visitors an early 6-3 lead. The gap was extended to six points when debutant Morris was caught offside and Lynagh kicked another penalty – although the debutant atoned for his error with a try that helped England level the score at 9-9 before half time.

The second half was a rollercoaster ride for England fans. An intercepted Webb pass allowed David Campese to run 70 yards and score for Australia, but the intense atmosphere of the success-starved crowd drove England on. Two Rory Underwood tries – the first an obvious candidate for the TMO today – gave England a 22-13 advantage before Australia narrowed the gap through a converted Grant try to put the home fans through a torturous finale. In the end, Simon Halliday’s first try for England sealed the deal. Webb tidied up the scoreline and England rejoiced, celebrating a memorable 28-19 victory.

The decisive score came at a cost, as Carling was wiped out a split second after releasing his fellow centre and had to leave the field – much to his disgust. The new skipper ended the day as dazed as the rest of us after a rare moment of excitement for English rugby in recent years.

Naturally, the press went into overdrive after the match. The Mirror chose the headline “Glory boys!” while the Express opted for “Brave England find the road to glory.” Underwood joined the chorus of approval, declaring them “the best England side I have played in during my five years in the team,” while Farr-Jones bigged up England’s chances in the future: “I believe Will Carling’s side will win the Five Nations. In fact, I can only see France posing any sort of threat.”

English rugby was now on the right path although there were a number of body blows along the way. England were denied the 1989 Five Nations title by a crushing 12-9 defeat in Cardiff on the final day of the championship. And, if that was not bad enough, they suffered even more the following year, when they lost to Scotland in their final match of the campaign and waved goodbye to the Calcutta Cup, triple crown, grand slam and championship. Carling’s men finally won the championship – and grand slam – in 1991, the year they made their first appearance in a World Cup final.

Losing that final to Australia at Twickenham was painful but, had you told Carling that three years after his debut as captain he would be leading the team out for a World Cup final at the same stadium, he would have snatched off your arm. The journey to that World Cup final could be traced back to the foundation stones put down in 1988: Cooke, Uttley, Carling, the second half against Ireland and the glorious win over Australia.

Of course, Australia ultimately had the last word in the grandest occasion of all, but that should take nothing away from the events of 5 November 1988. Before 1988, it was hard to feel anything other than pessimism about the England team. Yet now there was hope. That win 30 years ago was the start of something big, as the giant of English rugby finally began to stir.

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From The Vaults

When the rugby union game was thrown open to professionalism suddenly if not entirely unexpectedly at the conclusion of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, a myriad of conflicting forces was unleashed. The five European countries that contested the annual International Championship were forced to come to terms with a different landscape and many changes had already occurred by the time the opening two matches of the 1996 Championship were played on January 20th 1996 at Lansdowne Road and Parc des Princes.

All the northern hemisphere sides had taken the opportunity to play "warm-up" internationals to prepare themselves for the championship and some of the southern hemisphere countries had embarked on what they may well have hoped were the first of annual tours of the northern hemisphere. England hosted the touring South Africa and Western Samoa teams at Twickenham in November and December and Scotland also hosted Western Samoa at Murrayfield. Wales had toured South Africa in September and not only played Fiji at home in November but also hosted Italy at Cardiff Arms Park just four days before the Championship opened in January 1996. Ireland played Fiji in the last match of their nine-match tour of Wales and Ireland and then travelled to Atlanta to beat the USA in a closely-fought test match in January.

England v South Africa, 1995

England v South Africa, 18/11/1995, Twickenham

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

France had embarked on a tough schedule of internationals in the autumn of 1995. They played Italy, Romania and Argentina in the Latin Cup in the space of eight days in October winning all three matches. This was followed by a two-test series against the All Blacks in November. France won the first test at the Stade Municipal in Toulouse to general surprise but were then convincingly defeated in the second test at the Parc des Princes in Paris with the All Blacks showing the form that had made them runners-up at the World Cup. Italy was still five years away from joining the International Championship but they too were bitten by the professional bug and played five autumn tests before facing Wales in Cardiff.

If the fixtures and venues for the 1996 Championship matches had a familiar ring to them, coverage of the matches in the newspapers differed from former years with increased importance given to issues and personalities rather than just concentrating on detailed reports of matches. This was an inevitable by-product of rugby becoming a sport specialising in professional entertainment rather than a game played primarily for the enjoyment of the players. The result was acres of newsprint being expended over the next three months with the main concerns of the five unions appearing to be how to control player movement between clubs and countries and their consequent availability for international rugby.

The opening weekend saw Scotland beat Ireland in Dublin and France just scrape through against England through a last-minute drop goal from their new young Toulouse fly half, Thomas Castaignède. The press coverage of that opening weekend showed the way things were changing. In the 'Living and Leisure' section of the Irish Sunday Independent, a journalist commented that "With the game turning professional, one rugby pundit estimated that the collective Irish squad could earn just under £800,000 next season" and added that "God may love a trier but rugby union sponsors prefer try-scorers" . In the report of the match in the Dublin Sunday World, a journalist exasperated by the Irish team's performance in defeat wrote that "Rugby is now a professional game - it is time to drop the amateurs" .

France v England, 1996

France v England, 20/01/1996, Parc des Princes, Paris

France's Thomas Castaignede (left) celebrates with Richard Dourthe after his winning drop goal

(Photo by David Rogers/Allsport)

The narrow defeat for the England team in Paris spared them the vituperation that had been thrown at the Irish team, but a fortnight later after England had beaten Wales at Twickenham the papers were not so charitable. Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times queried:

"Where were the improved England? We are still waiting. Another uncannily muted Twickenham, more than a few jeers and another England performance that failed to electrify … England are still in a morass, lacking continuity, zip and confidence."

On the same weekend, Scotland beat France at Murrayfield for their second consecutive victory to press approval. It was revenge for their narrow defeat in their pool match at the World Cup. The Scottish press was even more delighted when the national team went to Cardiff a fortnight later and defeated Wales for whom Arwel Thomas narrowly missed a conversion in the last minute to draw the match. This set up a potential Grand Slam encounter with England a fortnight later.

France took Ireland apart by 45 points to 10 in Paris and this led to much tut-tutting in the Irish press. The Irish Sunday Independent was coruscating in its criticism:

"This is a seriously professional game but Ireland look and play like the amateurish team of the last decade. Who is culpable? … Responsibility lies with those who control Irish rugby, the IRFU bosses."

The fourth weekend of the tournament saw Scotland lose to a powerful English pack led by Dean Richards in a dour 18-9 game with nine penalty goals. Except for a scintillating 70-metre break by the young Gregor Townsend, there was barely a sniff of a try. Hugh McIlvanney in the Sunday Times lyrically described the Scottish defeat as once again "exposing a national psyche tortured by the destruction of a thousand improbable dreams to yet another scarring experience." Ireland back on home soil recovered their mojo with a convincing 30-17 defeat of Wales. Remarkably, the 30 points scored were the highest that Ireland had scored in any championship match in 114 years. This understandably led the Irish Times to declare that Irish rugby had regained its pride.

And so to the final weekend with the destination of the first professional championship at stake. Wales facing a whitewash destroyed the championship aspirations of France with a tight one-point victory secured by Neil Jenkins' third penalty goal in the closing minutes. England took advantage by beating Ireland convincingly at Twickenham to give them the championship from Scotland with a plus 25 points difference and ensure Ireland's place at the foot of the championship table.

Wales v France, 1996

Wales v France, 16/03/1996, National Stadium, Cardiff

(Photo by Mike Cooper/Allsport)

It had been a strange tournament dominated by external conflicts between clubs, regions and countries, payment of players and hostile discussions over broadcasting and TV rights. The future of the championship on the BBC was under threat and it was unclear whether the tournament in 1997 would have a similar fixture format. The editorial in the 1996/97 Rothmans Rugby Union Yearbook had the last word and summed up this historic championship as:

"neither particularly riveting nor scintillating … a middling championship won by a middling team, England."

• History of Welsh International Rugby - John Billot (2nd edition, Roman Way Books 1999)
• Irish Rugby 1974-1999 - Edmund Van Esbeck (Gill & Macmillan Ltd 1999)
• Le Livre d'Or du Rugby 1996 (Editions Solar 1996)
• Rothmans Rugby Yearbook 1996-97 - Editors: Cleary & Griffiths (Headline Books 1996)
• The Who, When & Where of English International Rugby - Dan Stansfield (1997)
• Newspaper reports from the British Newspaper Archive and articles from match programmes

About the Author

A professional musician and arts administrator, Richard Steele has been on the committee of the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham since 2005 and is the co-author of the RFU's 150th anniversary book England Rugby 150 Years.

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England's 1998 Tour from Hell to Australia, South Africa and New Zealand

• Huw Ricahrds

Twenty years on, the name still resonates. Talk of the Tour from Hell and there is rarely any doubt what is meant -- England's visit to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 1998.

It lives on in more than the game's folk memory. The Australia v England match at Lang Park, Brisbane on 6th June 1998 still sits in the record books. It was among the formative moments for a game still coming to terms with the acceptance of open professionalism three years earlier.

The outlines of this new world were emerging. At club level the Heineken Cup had just completed a third season and was facing its first English boycott, denying holders Bath their chance to defend the trophy.

The previous November had seen England define the model for what would soon become the standard autumn programme with four home tests on consecutive weekends, against Australia, New Zealand (twice) and South Africa.

That formidable schedule was the international bow for England's first full-time coach, Clive Woodward, appointed on the basis of a relatively thin resume, but offering the advantages of availability and willingness to commit himself fully to the post. And under the rules of reciprocity, it committed England to a corresponding away programme the following summer. As well as the tests, England also agreed to play three midweek matches, against New Zealand A, Academy and Maori.

It was, Woodward reckoned, 'The most gruelling seven-match series ever devised for an England team' and 'made even the fiercest Lions tour pale into insignificance'. It was, he thought 'challenging but doable, if you had the players in great shape and time to prepare for it.' But neither applied.

England had provided the bulk of the previous season's triumphant Lions squad in South Africa. This was followed by a crowded domestic season which saw claim a Triple Crown while the game's politicians battled for control in the corridors of Twickenham. Players had been in action more or less non-stop since September 1996. Some had played not far off 50 matches during the 1997-98 season.

Their need for a rest was blatantly evident. Star after star withdrew citing fatigue, injuries or both. England captain Lawrence Dallaglio, his back-row confreres Richard Hill and Neil Back, Lions leader Martin Johnson, centre Jeremy Guscott and all-but-indestructible prop Jason Leonard were only the biggest names on a long list of withdrawals.

Scrum-half Matt Dawson reckoned that 'nobody was thinking about what was best for the players, it was all about what was best for the clubs, the RFU and England'. He thought of withdrawing himself, but admitted that he was 'swayed by the offer of the captaincy'.

He was joined on tour by 36 other players. No fewer than 20 had yet to play for England, while only five had 10 caps or more. The Australians, who pointed out that they had sent a full-strength party north the previous autumn, were outraged.

Australian union president Dick McGruther, a gunboat diplomat even by the standards of Aussie officialdom, reckoned they were 'probably the most under-equipped group of Englishmen sent to Australia since the First Fleet' and invited his compatriots to Lang Park for a 'pommie thrashing'. Mark Ella thought it 'A joke and a waste of time'.

England did their best to accentuate the positive on arrival. Dawson managed to make a virtue of the crowded English programme, arguing that "The end of the domestic season wasn't that long ago, so the boys are extremely match-fit."

But Woodward admitted to being embarrassed at the long list of absentees, saying he hoped it would be a one-off. And he confessed in his memoirs to getting on the plane to Australia thinking that 'this is what is must feel to be a crash-test dummy'.

With Dawson ruled out by injury, Woodward named a team with five new caps -- Richmond wing Spencer Brown, Saracens centre Steve Ravenscroft, Gloucester scrum-half Scott Benton and two new back-rowers, Richard Pool-Jones of Stade Francais and Ben Sturnham of Saracens -- led by another Saracen, ball-handling number eight Tony Diprose.

Full-back Matt Perry started at centre for the only time in a distinguished England career, while prop Phil Vickery and outside-half Jonny Wilkinson, making his first start only a few weeks after leaving school, were winning only their second caps.

They would, tour manager Roger Uttley acknowledged, have to 'go out there and play their socks off. It is an enormous challenge." And in the opening stages, facing a full-strength Australian team in a half-full Lang Park, it looked as though they might rise to it. Prop Graham Rowntree later recalled: "We were in the game for the first 20 minutes. We were doing quite well, if defending a lot." Tackles by full-back Tim Stimpson, recalled after more than a year, thwarted Wallaby wings Joe Roff and Ben Tune.

It was 15 minutes before anyone scored, and only 6-0 after half an hour -- the difference the two penalties landed by Australia's Matt Burke while the 19 year-old Wilkinson missed what the agency report used on the BBC website reckoned to be 'two comfortable penalty chances'.

Nor did a 30th minute try by no 8 Toutai Kefu seem to presage a landslide. But with both Ravenscroft and Pool-Jones having head injuries stitched, the Wallabies ran in three more tries in the last seven minutes before the break. A clear lead turned in those few minutes into a landslide, 33-0 at half-time.

From then on, the only question was how many points Australia would score. The second half followed a similar pattern. England resisted for the first 16 minutes. Experienced Leicester centre Stuart Potter came on as a replacement, taking the number of debutants to six and wing Dominic Chapman, a prolific try-scorer in club rugby for Richmond, made it seven with Australia leading 47-0.

It was during the final 10 minutes that England caved in completely. The Wallabies ran in five more tries, with Tune and outside-half Stephen Larkham completing their hat-tricks. It ended 76-0, a new record for the heaviest defeat inflicted by one foundation union on another.

Diprose admitted post-match that 'There are a lot of disappointed guys in the dressing room and we are all shell-shocked." Rowntree recalled that 'There was nothing funny about the dressing room aferwards'. Woodward argued that "This is not a humiliation, just a freak result." He pointed out that "The Aussies lost by 60 points to South Africa last year and what this result means is that I've just undergone the biggest learning curve of my coaching career."

Wilkinson, who had turned 19 only a few weeks earlier, recalled in his autobiography that 'In the immediate aftermath of the thrashing, I felt desolate. ' There was a tearful phone call to his father, who 'Waited for the sniffing to stop, then encouraged me not to let the disappointment beat me, but to get up the next day and come back stronger'. He remembered his father offering similar advice five years earlier after he was left out of Surrey's under-14 team.

The BBC report speculated that some of the debutants 'may feel that they never want to pull on an England shirt again'. They would not be offered much choice in the matter. Four of them never did, Sturnham won two more caps, Ravenscroft and Brown one apiece. None played for England again after the end of the tour. Their combined total of 11 caps was outnumbered by the 16 eventually achieved by Australia's sole debutant, lock Tom Bowman.

England went on to lose 64-22 and 40-10 to the All Blacks before falling 18-0 to the Boks, also conceding 62 points to the Maoris. They ended their seven-match trip winless. Off-field discipline was not all it might be, with future England captain Lewis Moody delighted - if mortified looking back - to be crowned 'best shagger on tour' by his team-mates. As if all that were not enough, Woodward's father died while the team was in New Zealand.

It was, Woodward recalled, 'England's worst rugby nightmare'. Nascent international careers were destroyed by being launched, journalist Stephen Jones argued, with 'their true time at least two years in the future (if it was even then)'.

But as Rowntree argued, with England top of the world rankings in March 2002, 'You've got to have those experiences, if not quite as extreme as that, and it is about how you move on.' Wilkinson explained at the same time : "My motivation is making sure that I never feel the same way I did after the 76-0 defeat...All my preparation and work is a protection policy, if you like, to ensure that I never feel so powerless again."

Jones argued that in the longer term there was an element of good fortune for Woodward, still in the tricky early stages of his England coaching career. Nobody blamed him for losing when so patently underpowered. Instead Woodward earned sympathy for his personal loss and admiration - from fans and players, if not administrators - for a pointed gesture later in the tour when he booked the entire party out of an inadequate hotel in Cape Town, putting the considerable bill for switching them into the swish Mount Nelson Hotel onto his own credit card.

England's best team, Jones argued, would also have lost all four tests. All the evidence suggests that he was right. It was not just a matter of their best players being exhausted, but of the balance of power at the time.

In 30 matches matching the four home unions and the Tri-Nations between England's defeat of holders Australia in the quarter-final at the 1995 World Cup and their ending of the Springboks' 17-match winning run at Twickenham three and a half years later, the British and Irish quartet escaped defeat only once - England's 26-26 draw with the All Blacks at Twickenham in late 1997.

And they weren't just losing. Record hammerings, such as Ireland going down 63-15 to the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road and Scotland losing 68-10 to the Boks at Murrayfield the previous autumn, had become almost routine. The 76-0 hammering remains England's worst, but retained its currency as the heaviest beating inflicted by one foundation union on another for only three weeks, until Wales, with a team as depleted as the English XV at Brisbane, went down 96-13 to the Boks at Pretoria.

Nor was there any shame in losing to Australia. Almost exactly the same team, with the return of David Giffin at lock in place of Bowman the only change in the starting line-up, was to win the World Cup by beating France in Cardiff in late 1999.

Half-backs Larkham and George Gregan were still around to contest another World Cup final in 2003. Then, on a wet night in Sydney, Vickery and Wilkinson -- no longer a rookie miser of 'comfortable penalty chances', but the game's coolest executioner with the boot -- extracted full revenge for the misery inflicted in Brisbane.

Hell that earlier night at Lang Park may have been, but the damnation inflicted on Woodward and his team proved short-term, and arguably therapeutic, rather than permanent.