The Rugby Football Union, the governing body for rugby union in England, based at Twickenham in London and running the England men's, women's and sevens teams.
The Rugby Football Union, or RFU, governs and promotes rugby union in England. It organises England international matches, educates and trains players and officials, and runs the England men's, women's and sevens teams. It also runs the RFU Championship, the second tier of the men's game, and Premiership Women's Rugby, the top women's league. It is an industrial and provident society owned by more than 2,000 member clubs, and Wikipedia describes it as representing over 2.5 million registered players, the largest rugby union society in the world. Its home ground is Twickenham Stadium in south-west London, renamed Allianz Stadium in 2024 under a naming rights partnership.
The RFU's story starts in the nineteenth century. In 1870 and 1871, two rugby men, Edwin Ash of Richmond and Benjamin Burns of Blackheath, wrote to The Times calling for a common code of rules. On 26 January 1871, representatives of 21 clubs met at the Pall Mall Restaurant in London and the RFU was founded, with Algernon Rutter as first president. Three former Rugby School pupils drafted the first laws, which were approved that June. The Rugby Football Union for Women joined the RFU in 2012. We did not find a formal mission statement on the pages we read, so we have not invented one.
The RFU's headquarters is at Twickenham Stadium in London. England's teams have won the men's Rugby World Cup in 2003 and the women's in 1994, 2014 and 2025, according to Wikipedia. Sir James Wates is named as chairman, and the Princess of Wales has been patron since February 2022. Because the RFU is owned by clubs from every part of England, from village sides to professional teams, its reach is nationwide even though its main base is in south-west London.
We found little published about day-to-day culture. What we can say is that the RFU is a member organisation, answerable to its clubs through its Council, and that it has had to make difficult decisions in public, including a 2022 Council vote on transgender participation that led to legal action. Working in sport governance often means balancing the views of players, volunteers, supporters and sponsors, and it can be a good place to learn about listening and communication.
A national governing body employs a wide mix of people. There are coaches and match officials' trainers, competition and operations staff, stadium and events teams at Twickenham, communications and digital producers, community rugby development officers who support clubs and schools, and finance, legal and human resources staff. Subjects such as PE, business, media, maths and law all feed in. The RFU website lists current vacancies.
Website: www.englandrugby.com
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