England - Rugby World Cup Team Stats

England have won their opening fixture in the last three world cup tournaments.

The last team to beat England was South Africa in the quarter-final of 1999.

England’s captain in the first world cup in 1987 was Mike Harrison of the now defunct Wakefield club.

England have played New Zealand three times in the world cup and lost them all.

England need to score one more try to become the fourth country to score 100 tries in the world cup.

They also only need 43 points to hit the 1000 world cup points milestone.

Two more penalties will see them become the first team in world cup history to kick 100.

England have had two unrelated players with the same name play in separate world cup finals. Scrum half Richard Hill in 1991 and flanker Richard Hill in 2003.

Pushing the boundaries of trivia, England had two players in the 1999 world cup whose names were anagrams of each other, Neil Back and Nick Beal.

Lawrence Dallaglio was the only English player to appear in every minute of every game in the successful 2003 world cup.

Jason Robinson is the only Englishman to have scored a try in a world cup final.

Phil Vickery is only the fourth man to captain England in a world cup after Mike Harrison, Will Carling (twice) and Martin Johnson (twice).

England, along with New Zealand, have scored over 100 points in a match twice in the world cup. 101-10 against Tonga in 1999 and 111-13 against Uruguay in 2003.

Josh Lewsey scored an England world cup record 5 tries in the Uruguay match.

Lewsey scored a try 51 seconds after the re-start of the second half in this match.

The only other England player to score 3 tries in a world cup match is Mike Harrison in 1987.

Rory Underwood is England’s leading tryscorer in world cups with 11 putting him second overall to Jonah Lomu.

England’s highest points scored in one world cup match by an individual is 36 by Paul Grayson against Tonga. The joint fourth highest in the history of the tournament.

Jonny Wilkinson has scored most penalties in one world cup match for England with 7 against Fiji in 1999. He also scored 5 against France in 2003 and 6 against Wales in 2003.Paul Grayson also scored 6 against South Africa in 1999.

Grayson holds the English world cup record for conversions in a world cup match with 12 against Tonga in 1999. He also kicked 11 against Uruguay in 2003. Jonny Wilkinson’s best is only 6 versus Italy in 1999.

Wilkinson holds the competition record for drop goals with 8 in total. His best effort was 3 in the French game in 2003. With 14, England have scored more drop goals in world cup history than any other country.

Jonny Wilkinson is the third highest world cup points scorer of all time after Gavin Hastings and Michael Lynagh. He needs 18 points to reach the 200 mark and 46 to overtake Hastings at the top of the pile.

Second highest points scorer for England is Jonathan Webb with 99.

Jonny Wilkinson was top points scorer in the 2003 competition with 113. Only Grant Fox has bettered this with his 126 in the inaugural tournament of 1987.

Despite scoring 182 points, Wilkinson has only ever scored one try in the world cup, against Italy in 1999.

No England player has ever been sent off in the world cup and Joe Worsley is the only player to have received a yellow card, against Uruguay in 2003.

Jason Leonard is the only Englishmen to appear in four world cup tournaments and Mike Catt will be looking to emulate him this year.

Jason Leonard is also the only Englishman to have appeared in two world cup finals.

Leonard holds the record for most world cup appearances playing in 22 matches between 1991 and 2003.Martin Johnson is second with 18.

Brothers Rory and Tony Underwood both played on the wing for England in the 1995 tournament. Both scored a try in the match against Italy.

Ben Cohen made it a unique family double when winning a rugby world cup winners medal with England in 2003. He followed his uncle, George Cohen, who played full back for the England football team when they won the world cup in 1966.