RFU President, Rob Udwin, arrived in the UK from his native South Africa as a 17-year-old deferring his South Africa Defence Force conscription to study.
It was the year of the Soweto uprising when students protesting against apartheid met fierce police brutality, with many killed. Rob fled to England knowing that “People I was at school with were being sent into townships in police uniform armed with rifles and told to suppress insurrection. I wanted no part of it. A black friend had also been gunned down and killed at a police checkpoint. It was a terrible time.”
His father, mother and sister followed him to the UK where he and his family faced deportation before Rob’s third appeal was successful, and he was granted political asylum on the grounds that he would refuse to serve in the Army in South Africa and be jailed. He finally became a British Citizen in 1993.
Rob had played rugby in state schools, Parkhurst Primary and Parktown Boys High School in Johannesburg. Living alone in London, he joined Wasps FC in early 1977. “Everyone was so welcoming. That’s rugby, wherever you are in the world, wherever you come from, you walk into a rugby club and you’re among friends.”
At Manchester University, he played second row for the University Rugby Club. Then, having joined Manchester rugby club, moved back to London, travelling up every week to play. He returned to Wasps before a season at Hampstead Rugby Club, later joining Chiswick – then the Old Meadonians. He played over 200 games there, also playing for Sunday team, the Entertainers.
Rob worked for his father’s theatre ticket agency in London, when the company was bought by Keith Prowse going with it and becoming a member of the senior management team, later starting his own consultancy. He then worked for computer software development business Metafour, becoming part owner and also became first Hon Sec, and then Chairman of Old Meadonians, overseeing the transition from old boys’ to open club, with a name change to Chiswick RFC.
Rob took up the role of Discipline Secretary for Middlesex CRFU in 1992, was a member of the Middlesex Management Committee, a selector for the County XV, then Chairman of Selectors, Assistant Manager and Manager. He also served on numerous committees and working groups beforebeing elected to the RFU Council by the Middlesex clubs and then serving on the RFU Board. He became Chair of the Community Rugby Standing Committee in 2008 and led the transition to the Community Game Board, serving on many other committees, task groups and working groups in 20 years as a Council Member. He was a trustee of both the Injured Players Foundation and the Rugby Football Foundation and RFU representative on Rugby Europe from 2014 to 2023. He retired from full time employment to take up the role of RFU President.
"I plan to use my personal story – that of a foreign born, state school educated, political refugee - to demonstrate that rugby is for everyone, regardless of background or origin. It is who you are that really matters, not what you are."
