With the 2015 Rugby World Cup coming ever closer, we decided to have a look at the rugby players born and bred in the West Midlands region.
This infographic will show you the key statistics about England rugby players from the West Midlands, as well as the amount of players from the region that have been included in the Rugby World Cup squads from 1987-2007.
We as a region produced MORE England international rugby players when most of the Grammar Schools in Birmingham played rugby….my Birmingham Grammar School George Dixon GS played rugby as did about 30 other grammar schools in the city like Lordswood, Central Grammar, Sir Wilfred Martineau, Bournville GTS and many others too numerous to mention….Nowadays rugby is purely the province of the Public Schools like King Edward’s School and Bromsgrove….there are some anomalies like my son’s school Oldswinford Hospital which reached a Daily Mail National Schools’ Cup 6 years ago….this is a State Boarding School in Stourbridge which has provided many players for the English professional game like Chris Pennell, the Worcester Warriors captain