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Did you know ...

• although South African rugby union player Werner Greeff scored only four tries, one of them was named his country's try of the year in 2002?
• after English rugby international forward Denys Dobson was killed by a charging rhinoceros, he was reportedly said to always have had "a weak hand off"?
• because Fred Perrett switched from rugby union to rugby league he was often left out of lists of Wales players who died in action during World War I?
• if rugby union player Tom Prydie appears for Wales in the 2010 Six Nations, he will become the youngest cap in the team's history?
• in the 2000, 2001, and 2002 seasons of the Super 12, the Highlanders rugby union team went undefeated at their home ground of Carisbrook?
• in rugby union, New Zealand has only lost four Test matches at Carisbrook stadium in over one hundred years?
• a minute of silence was held in memory of murdered rugby player Shane Geoghegan at Ireland's 2008 international match against New Zealand?
• New Zealand rugby union player Mark Hammett won four Super 12 titles with the Crusaders between 1996 and 2003 before being appointed as their assistant coach for 2007?
• Roger Vanderfield, an Australian doctor, rugby union referee and administrator, was instrumental in establishing the first Rugby World Cup?
• Peter de Villiers was named coach of South Africa's national rugby union team, the Springboks, in January 2008, the first ever black coach of the team?
• Stahl Hennigsdorf Rugby won 27 East German national rugby union championships from 1952 to 1990?
• William Thomas Havard, who was bishop of two Welsh dioceses (St Asaph, then St David's), once represented Wales in an international rugby union match?
• Irish cricketer and rugby union player Dickie Lloyd was regarded as one of the most famous pupils of Portora Royal School, alongside Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde?
• Ireland rugby union international player Thomas Ranken Lyle was commemorated on a set of postage stamps for his pioneering work on X-rays?
• only three Super 14 rugby union teams ever won the Super 12?
• the Gaelic Athletic Association's relaxing of Rule 42 allowed the staging of the 2008–09 Heineken Cup semi-final in Croke Park and the breaking of the rugby union club world attendance record?
• the inaugural 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens took place in Scotland, the birthplace of the rugby sevens variant of rugby union?
• the brother of Australian rugby player Dean Mumm was assistant coach to the Fijian rugby team, whilst their grandfather played for the All Blacks?
• the pharmacy of former Welsh rugby union player Willie Llewellyn was saved from rioters during the Tonypandy Riot because of his past services to his country?
• the rules for a scrum in rugby union were changed in 2007 to try to reduce the number of serious neck injuries to players?
• when Teddy Morgan led Wales in their national anthem before the 1905 rugby union match, it was the first time a national anthem had been sung before a sporting event?
• the trophy for the Enterprise Cup, a Kenyan rugby union competition, was donated by sailors of the HMS Enterprise who toured East Africa in 1928?
• the USA Hawks are one of two national representative rugby union teams from the United States, and lost 0-98 in their inaugural North America 4 game against Canada West?
• the Heartland Championship and the Air New Zealand Cup have replaced the National Provincial Championship in New Zealand rugby union?
• the 2005-06 World Sevens Series in rugby sevens will be the first in seven seasons of the competition to be won by a team other than New Zealand?
• the 1996 season of the Super 12 was the first season of professional rugby union in the southern hemisphere following a US$550,000,000 deal between SANZAR and News Corporation?
• the Challenge Yves du Manoir, a French Rugby union competition which ran from 1931 to 2003, was created by Racing Club de France with the support of CA Bordeaux-Bègles Gironde and AS Montferrandaise?
• the Emerald Warriors are Ireland's first primarily gay rugby team?
• the FC St. Pauli rugby department was formed in 1933 when the club's complete 6th XI switched codes from football to rugby union?
• Peter Sanders began his career as a professional association football player, switched to playing rugby union, and has subsequently spent forty years running a baseball club?
• Neil Doak was named in the Ireland squad for the 2003 Rugby World Cup but did not play, just missing out on becoming the first Irish dual cricket/rugby union international since the 1960s?
• rugby union footballer Farah Palmer captained the Black Ferns to three consecutive Women's Rugby World Cup titles?
• Irish rugby union commentator Ryle Nugent has worn sheepskin gloves whilst clinging to his microphone "for dear life"?
• rugby union footballer George MacPherson was the captain of the first Scotland team to ever win a Five Nations Grand Slam?
• rugby union footballer Robert Wilson Shaw was so influential in Scotland's Triple Crown winning victory over England in 1938 that the match became known as "Wilson Shaw's match"?
• Scotland rugby union player Duncan Macrae won a Military Cross for his actions as part of the 51st Highland Division at Saint-Valery-en-Caux?
• rugby player Wayne Shelford suffered a ripped scrotum during an All Blacks match against France?
• New Zealand Test cricketer Martin Donnelly also played rugby union for England?
• New Zealand rugby player Andy Dalton suffered an injury that kept him from captaining the All Blacks side that went on to win the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup?
• Irish international rugby union captain Dolway Walkington sometimes played matches wearing a monocle, removing it only when he needed to make a tackle?
• Czech children's writer Ondřej Sekora was also one of the first propagators of rugby in Czechoslovakia?
• New Zealand rugby union footballer Ali Williams did not start playing until he was aged 17, but earned three international caps before he was 22?
• New Zealand rugby union footballer Jimmy Hunter's 44 tries on the 1905 All Blacks tour is a record that is unlikely to ever to be surpassed?
• New Zealand rugby union player Billy Stead co-authored The Complete Rugby Footballer while on tour with the All Blacks in 1905-6?
• Scottish international rugby player Tremayne Rodd was banned from playing amateur rugby union in 1966 after accompanying the British and Irish Lions?
• Scottish and British Lions rugby captain David Bedell-Sivright is said to have rugby tackled a cart horse in Edinburgh's Princes Street?
• Frederick Stokes captained the England rugby team in the first ever international rugby match in 1871?
• Edward Barrett played rugby union for England, and cricket for the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States?
• Ian Smith's 24 international tries, scored for Scotland in rugby union between 1924 and 1933, was an international record until 1987?
• Jerry Shea was the first player to achieve all four rugby scoring methods—try, conversion, penalty goal and drop goal—in a single international match?
• Lennard Stokes, a 19th-century rugby union international who captained England on five occasions, also played first-class cricket for Kent and later worked as a surgeon?
• Launcelot Percival was an England international rugby union player before becoming Deputy Clerk of the Closet to George VI of the United Kingdom?
• DSV 78/08 Ricklingen, the oldest rugby union club in Germany, was formed under the leadership of 15 year old Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke in 1878?
• Corné Krige and George Gregan, who respectively captained the South Africa and Australia rugby union teams in both the 2002 and 2003 Tri Nations Series, were born in the same hospital in Zambia?
• Wales rugby international Harry Payne finished his playing career after breaking his ankle in a match, at the age of 84?
• South African rugby player Jannie du Plessis is both a physician and professional athlete?
• Wales rugby international and Welsh Rugby Union Secretary Bill Clement was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in World War II?
• Bennie Osler played 17 consecutive rugby union matches for South Africa between 1924 and 1933?
• Charles Taylor was the first of thirteen Welsh international rugby players to die in action during World War I?
• Australian rugby union player Steve Williams was selected to play for the German national rugby union team while backpacking around Europe?