England's Grand Slam captain and a lifelong statesman of the world game
RugbySir Bill Beaumont belongs to the small group of England captains whose name still means something to every rugby supporter in the country.
Born in Chorley in 1952, Beaumont was a second row forward for Fylde, Lancashire and England, winning 34 caps between 1975 and 1982 and captaining his country 21 times. In 1980 he led England to their first Five Nations Grand Slam in 23 years, beating Scotland at Murrayfield in a famous afternoon that ended a generation of frustration for English rugby. The same year he captained the British and Irish Lions on their tour of South Africa.
Injury forced him out of the game at just 30, and for anyone who had watched him play it felt far too soon. He became a household name to a whole new audience through long running appearances as a team captain on A Question of Sport alongside Bill Beaumont and Emlyn Hughes, and moved almost seamlessly into rugby administration thereafter.
He served as chairman of the Rugby Football Union and then as chairman of World Rugby from 2016 to 2024, steering the global game through the pandemic and a period of intense commercial and structural change. Knighted in 2019, he remains one of rugby's most respected voices, and a speaker who carries five decades of the sport's biggest moments with him.
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