Will Carling - Rugby Career

Rugby Career

In 1987 he resigned his army commission in order to concentrate on rugby as a career, and then joined Harlequins and assumed his normal position as centre.

In 1988 he became the youngest ever England captain at the age of 22yrs, and was the most successful, until Martin Johnson's period. His first match as captain was a shock win over Australia by 28-19. During his time he led England to back-to-back Five Nations grand slam victories (1991, 1992) and another Grand Slam in 1995, amassing 6 tries from outside centre in the Championship, and several more in other matches. Whilst possibly the one of world's best centres at the time, he and his team went on to the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup. After Carling's retirement as captain, no England team managed a Five (or Six) Nations Grand Slam until 2003.

Carling's England team was often criticised as boring because they supposedly did not score many tries (although, in fact, in 1990 they broke the team record for tries in the Five Nations Championship, with 12 despite not actually winning the championship, and then shattered their own record with 15 in the 1992 Grand Slam) and often relied upon their forwards rather than take risks by giving the ball to the backs. Perhaps it was sensitivity about this - a reputation largely gained during the "functional but boring" Grand Slam of 1991 - that caused a famous reversal of tactics in the 1991 Rugby World Cup Final, when England suddenly played an expansive game that possibly contributed to their defeat by Australia. Carling offered the explanation that it was due to a previous defeat by Australia where England had been beaten up front.

Despite this, under Carling England started to challenge and beat the established rugby union powers such as New Zealand and Australia, and their success helped to make rugby union a more popular sport in England. English victories over New Zealand and South Africa in 1993 were perhaps the peak of England's performance under Carling: although for the rest of the year and the next one, England reverted to stereotype, and under-achieved somewhat.

In the run-up to the 1995 World Cup, after England returned to form with their third Grand Slam in five years, Carling famously described the Rugby Football Union general committee as "57 old farts" which led to his sacking as captain. The incident had been provoked by administrator Dudley Wood's comments about England players' alleged desire to cheat by breaking the amateur ethics. He was however quickly reinstated due to public pressure and following a public apology was able to go to the 1995 Rugby World Cup: in which England, after a slow start against the minnows, quickly found form, won all their group games and gained their revenge over Australia by knocking them out in the quarter final 25-22, thanks to a last-minute drop-goal from Rob Andrew. They were however well beaten by New Zealand in the semi-final, largely thanks to four tries from Jonah Lomu - although Carling himself scored two tries towards the end of the game (and set up two more for Rory Underwood), England lost 45-29. The subsequent loss in the third place play-off, against France, was England's first loss to the French in seven years, but was largely treated as an irrelevance.

Following his resignation from the England captaincy he continued to be selected as an outside centre, usually with Jeremy Guscott or Phil de Glanville: the latter succeeded him as captain.