RFU President 2019-20 Season
Peter Wheeler becomes President of the Rugby this month (August). He began his rugby aged 12 at Brockley County School in South London and, at the age of 26, made his England debut as hooker, going on to gain a total of 41 caps.
He went on both the 1977 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand and the 1980 tour to South Africa.
In 1971 he was on an England uncapped tour to the Far East, as part of the RFU’s centenary celebrations. The first match was against Japan at the Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Stadium, in Osaka, in front of a crowd of 13,000.The second was at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo with 25,000 fans there. Other tour matches were in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
In 1974 he scored a hat-trick of tries on his Barbarian debut against the East Midlands in the Mobbs Memorial Match and went on to play 17 times for the club. In 1976 he captained the side against Saskatchewan on the Baa-Baas tour of Canada and in 1981 was a member of the Barbarians squad that won the Hong Kong Sevens, playing alongside Clive Woodward and Andy Ripley.
Peter captained Leicester Tigers to three consecutive wins in the John Player Cup from 1979 to 81 and played 349 games for the club from 1969 to 1985.
A leading supporter of league rugby, he coached Tigers in the inaugural league season of 1987, when they became champions. He then joined the Tigers organising committee, having coached Oxford for the Varsity Match.
When the game went professional in 1996, he became Leicester Tigers Chief Executive, remaining in that role until 2010. He was then Tigers’ Rugby Director until he retired in 2015, becoming a life member after serving the club for more than 40 years as captain, coach, CEO and President.
Peter was inducted into the Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame for his contribution to the professional club game and his role in the game’s development through his work with Tigers, Premiership Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Professional Game Board.
He and his wife Margaret have three sons and a daughter, all of whom have played rugby union.
