Twickenham’s Bronze & Gold
There are still players at Twickenham Stadium but cast in bronze, keeping guard during the current closure.
On the west side of the stadium, a four-strong group of players by the pop artist and sculptor Gerald Laing are paused in action. They arrived in 1996. The scrum half is twisting to spin the ball out to the backs; the wing sets off at a pace; the try-scorer dives over the invisible whitewash; the kicker takes aim in the old style, face on.
'A glorious lion'
In their midst, on his pillar, stands the glorious lion, gilded in 1996. Having been removed from the old Lion Brewery, he was presented by the Greater London Council to the RFU in 1970 to mark the Union’s centenary.
Two decades later, to commemorate those who died in wartime , including 27 England players killed in World War I, the Rose and Poppy Gates were unveiled. Sculptor Harry Gray had them fashioned from bronze and festooned with England roses, poppies in their middle. Once they climb over the top of a crossbar, they turn into poppies made from shell cases from the Great War battlefield. The gates are lit from beneath at nighttime.
Lineout statue
Walk around to the south east of the stadium and there, looking over the traffic lights that separate Rugby and Whitton Roads, is the 27ft tall lineout statue. Who can tell how someone perched a Santa hat on the topmost player one Christmas?
Another Laing creation, it was unveiled in 2010. At its base the core values of rugby are inscribed: Teamwork – Respect – Enjoyment – Discipline – Sportsmanship.
There is one real personage among all this splendour, a stern gent on a bronze relief on the lion’s pillar. Rowland Hill (1855-1928) was Secretary of the RFU.
Unlike the altruistic England captain Ronnie Poulton, who fell in the Great War and espoused less well-off northern players being paid broken time for work missed representing their country, Rowland Hill championed the refusal in those amateur days.
The stance led to the ‘Great Schism’ and the creation of rugby league. A rugby referee, Rowland Hill served the RFU for almost 50 years as Secretary and then President. He became the first person to be knighted for services to rugby.
The weathervane
At the very top of the stadium, however, are two figures, one of which is certainly mythical. The weathervane on the Twickenham roof, in the south east corner, features Hermes, fastest of the Greek gods, who was known as Mercury to the Romans. He is passing a rugby ball to a player.
It is 1.9 m high and was made in 1950 by a Scot, Kenneth Dalgleish. Its first home was on the South Terrace, replacing the old clock tower, then it moved to the north corner of the East Stand and eventually to its present location. TV broadcasts from Twickenham in the 1950s and 60s began with a close-up of the weathervane, making it a familiar sight for rugby fans. A scaled down model is in the World Rugby Museum collection.
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