Lift Em High – Here’s To Rugby's Obscure Trophies

Last Saturday, after New Zealand’s 43-17 win over France in Wellington, All Blacks captain Ardie Savea took hold of a trophy and lifted it high into the Wellington sky with fireworks going off in the background, and celebrations among the home faithful.

It may not be the Webb Ellis Cup (World Cup), or Rugby Championship trophy (both in Johannesburg for now), but the Dave Gallagher Trophy will continue to reside alongside the Bledisloe Cup (on seemingly long-term lease) and many other minor trophies in New Zealand’s capital.

One suspects that the French weren’t too upset about missing out on this piece of silverware.

They took their leave from the Wellington pitch with such speed that former Kiwi wing Jeff Wilson raged, “it was a little disappointing that they didn’t stay out on the field for the presentation of the Dave Gallaher Trophy, which I think is disappointing because we would never do that over there.”

I guess when you’ve lost a World Cup final and watched George Gregan’s slap deny you a winning Bledisloe Cup try, you have time to practice the appropriate response.

For those who are wondering, the Dave Gallagher Trophy is the award on offer whenever the All Blacks take on Les Bleus outside a World Cup. It is named after the Irish-born New Zealand international who captained the first All Blacks team and later died at Passchendaele during World War 1.

In fact, it is one of a legion of minor trophies on offer across the sport, and here are some of our favourites.

Tom Richards Trophy – Australia v British and Irish Lions

You’ll hear plenty about this trophy over the next few weeks, as Australia do their best to wrest it from the Lions’ grasp.

A big glass bowl that was created for the 2001 tour and was last seen being used as a pillow by a sleeping Sam Warburton on the flight home. You have to wonder what 1989 winning captain Finlay Calder and his backrow sidekick Dean Richards would have done with it.

Tom Richards was the Australian-born son of a Cornishman, who played for Australia and due to his playing for Bristol was allowed to tour South Africa with the Lions in 1910 where he played two tests, even though he never played for any of the home nations.

He also won gold with the Wallabies at the London 1908 Olympics and was awarded the Military Cross in August 1917 for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in World War 1.

Millenium Trophy

We at ATR always appreciate a trophy with a nod to the Vikings. Just imagine them in the middle of a scrum or charging after a kick ahead.

This one is a real beauty. Fought over by Ireland and England, and currently residing in Dublin, the Millennium Trophy has been played for since 1988 when the Irish capital celebrated its 1000th year.

The Viking horns on the silver Viking helmet trophy is a nod to the original Viking settlement which grew to become Ireland’s largest city.

England held the trophy till 1993, when Mick Galway’s magic at Lansdowne Road sent the trophy over the Irish Sea for the first time. Since the Six Nations started the Irish have won more, 15 to England’s 11.

Our only gripe is that the plinth means players can’t actually wear the helmet as a helmet, as wing Jacob Stockdale unsuccessfully tried in 2021.

QBE International Trophy – England v Argentina 2013

When you’re a new sponsor you want to make your mark, so when QBE Insurance sponsored England, they wanted to ensure the winners of their 2013 clash with Argentina had a trophy to remember.

Boy did they come up with something. Quite what though is hard to describe.

A lopped off upside down triangle, adorned with Aztec images, and a ball stuffed in the middle. What else could describe a rivalry that spans the Atlantic Ocean and still flares up to this day?

Note how none of the players on the podium are looking directly at the trophy lest they be sucked into its vortex, destined to play a never-ending match inside the miniature ball.

England won the clash 31-12. That we know. What became of the trophy remains a mystery.

Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy – France v Italy

It is memorable trophies you want, take a gander at the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy.

Introduced for matches between France and Italy in 2007, it celebrates the great Italian revolutionary who was born in Nizza, then in Italy, but nowadays is Nice in France.

Italy had to wait till their final match at Stadio Flaminio to claim it for the first time and did so most recently in 2013.

Former French flanker Jean-Pierre Rives designed it, but quite what it is or represents has yet to be revealed. To ATR’s uneducated eyes it looks like a twisted railway line stuffed into a block of wood.

Whatever it is, it isn’t light, with the likes of Sergio Parisse, Martin Castrogiovanni, Thierry Dusautoir and Fabien Pelous having struggled to get it airborne.

Raeburn Shield/ Utrecht Shield

Two awards with no trophies (though you can find photo-shopped efforts). The Raeburn and Utrecht Shields work along the lines of boxing championships as lineal world titles. You beat the holder and you’re the new champion.

The idea is that the first test matches between Scotland and England men’s at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh in 1871, and the Netherlands and France women in Utrecht in 1982 were world championship clashes, and all that follows means the victors took the spoils.

As such, Scotland and France won the inaugural titles. Scotland held it until they lost to England in the next fixture, while France held the Utrecht Shield for four years and six matches before they eventually lost to the Netherlands.

Currently England hold both the men’s and women’s trophies. The men won it from France in this year’s Guinness Men’s Six Nations, and the women won it from Canada in the 2024 WXV Final.

The women’s title has been held by all the big names, and at one point by Great Britain. The men’s stayed in the northern hemisphere till 1906 when South Africa took it south until 1964 when France claimed it back.

The Raeburn Shield has been claimed by the five nations and Rugby Championship teams, though Argentina were still on the outside when they won it in 1985, a year after Romania. Samoa beat Wales to claim it in 1999, and Japan have won it twice in the last 12 years.