1980-1999
Thanks to a 9-8 (three penalties to two tries) victory against a 14-man Wales, England started the decade with a Grand Slam victory in the 1980 Five Nations - their first for 23 years. This earned England their first BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award. The victory was something of a false dawn and the remainder of the decade was not a great period for the England team. The subsequent Championship of 1981 was less successful for England, winning two of their four games, and was followed up with a draw and win against Argentina. England kicked off 1982 with a victory over the Wallabies in a tight game, winning 15 to 11 in England; the game was made famous by Erica Roe's famous streak across the pitch. Their Five Nations campaign was similarly successful, drawing with Scotland, losing to Ireland, and victories over France and Wales. At the match banquet after the win against France in Paris, there was a complimentary bottle of cologne next to each player's place at the table. Second row Maurice Colclough emptied the flask and refilled it with wine, which he then drank. Team-mate Colin Smart saw only Colclough seemingly sink a bottle of cologne and decided to follow suit. Within an hour he was on his way to hospital to have his stomach pumped, although as scrum-half Steve Smith pointed out: 'He may have been unwell, but Colin had the nicest breath I've smelt.'
In the 1983 Five Nations England failed to win a game and picked up the wooden spoon. This inadvertently lead to the formation of the Rugby charity the Wooden Spoon Society. England drew Wales and lost their other three matches, although they completed the year with an impressive 15-9 victory over the All Blacks in England. England improved slightly in the following Five Nations, but still managed only one win. That year the Springboks put 35 points on England in two tests in South Africa, and the Wallabies defeated them at Twickenham. 1985 started with a close win over Romania, followed by a Five Nations draw with France. After a win over Scotland, England succumbed to losses against Ireland and Wales in their remaining Five Nations fixtures. England then lost twice to the All Blacks on tour to New Zealand - 18-13, and a convincing 42-15.
England won two of their four games at the 1986 Five Nations and in the following championship, only won the one game against Scotland. In the first Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, England were grouped in pool A alongside Australia, Japan and the United States. England lost their first game 19-6 against Australia. They went on to defeat Japan 60-7, and the United States, 34-6, to place them second in their pool. They met Wales in their quarter-final and lost the match 16-3.
England opened their 1988 Five Nations with a 10-9 loss to France, which was followed by defeat against Wales. England, however, finished the championship by defeating both Scotland and Ireland. England lost two games against Australia in the same year as well. Their 1989 Five Nations was an improvement over the previous championship, winning two games and drawing another with just the one loss to Wales. England then won games against Romania and Fiji, and carried this winning streak over into 1990, winning their first three Five Nations games. They lost to Scotland in their last game however, and hence Scotland achieved a Grand Slam. In 1991 England had ideal preparation for that year's World Cup, by winning their first Grand Slam since 1980.
On 20 July 1991, the Argentine amateur club Banco Nación defeated England's national team in a surprise 29 to 21 victory in Buenos Aires.
England hosted the 1991 Rugby World Cup and were in pool A, along with the All Blacks, Italy and the United States. The opening game of the tournament at Twickenham was the clash between the All Blacks and England, which the All Blacks won 18-12. England subsequently defeated Italy 36-6 and the United States 37-9, to finish second in their pool. England faced pool D winners France, in Parc des Princes in Paris. In a fiercely contested match they defeated France 19-10. The win earned England a semi-final berth against Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. England won 9-6 to secure a place in the final against Australia. The final was played in front of a capacity crowd at Twickenham, and England eventually lost the match 12-6. This left Australia as the 1991 World Champions. England again won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award albeit shared with the Men's Olympic 4 x 400m relay squad.
The next year, England completed another Grand Slam in the 1992 Five Nations. They extended this success to the rest of their fixtures that year by beating Canada and the newly reinstated Springboks. The winning run continued into 1993 by defeating France and their opening game of the Five Nations. They then lost to the Welsh in their next game, and won their following game against Scotland before losing to Ireland. In November of that year, England then defeated the All Blacks 15-9. England were awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award in 1993, for the third time. England lost just the one game at the 1994 Five Nations, and their only other loss that year was their second test against the Springboks.
In the lead up to the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, England completed another Grand Slam - their third in five years. With the Five Nations trophy, England headed into pool B of the World Cup, grouped with Argentina, Italy and Samoa. England won their opening game, defeating Argentina 24-18, and went on to narrowly defeat Italy 27-20 and then Samoa, 44-22. England faced Australia in the quarter finals, where they went on to win, the final score 25-22. England moved into the semi-finals, where they met the powerful All Blacks. In a match dominated by the All Blacks and featuring four tries by Jonah Lomu, England lost 45-29. They then lost the third/fourth place match against France, while South Africa emerged as World Champions against the All Blacks.
In 1996, a deal between British Sky Broadcasting and the Rugby Football Union meant that England home games were exclusively shown on Sky. This deal caused great controversy at the time and England were threatened with being expelled from the five nations to be replaced by Italy. This threat was never carried out with the understanding that all future television deals would be negotiated collectively.
In 1997 former international and member of the 1980 Grand Slam winning team, Clive Woodward became coach of the England team. In that year England managed a draw with New Zealand at Twickenham, after being routed in Manchester the week before. Many of the England team made themselves unavailable for the disastrous summer 1998 tour to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa nicknamed the 'Tour of Hell' where England suffered a humiliating 76-0 defeat to the Wallabies. In the 1998 and 1999 Five Nations England failed to win their crucial games, and handed titles to France in 1998 and Scotland in 1999 by failing to beat France and Wales respectively. In the last ever Five Nations match (the tournament would admit Italy the following season and become known as the Six Nations) Scott Gibbs sliced through six English tackles to score in the last minute. England were defeated and the last ever Five nations title went to Scotland.
Read more about this topic: History Of The England National Rugby Union Team