A rare official poster for the first time rugby union was played at Wembley Stadium in The Charrington International Rugby Festival 1st September 1979

A rare official poster for the first time rugby union was played at Wembley Stadium in The Charrington International Rugby Festival 1st September 1979, laid down on board as issued, 76 by 51cm., 30 by 20in. The Charrington International Rugby Festival was a day long knock-out competition featuring all the London Merit Table clubs together with a selection of international club sides including the Scottish champions and eventual Heriots F.P. plus Blackrock College, Toulouse & Rovigo, plus the English northern champions Liverpool RFC. The 20-minute 15-a-side games began with preliminary matches at 11.30am and culminated in the floodlit final commencing at 8pm. The attendance was given by the Wembley press office as 16,000, although this number was viewed with a good deal of cynicism. The Festival was not deemed a success and not revived the following year. Rugby Union did return to the home of football in 1992 when England played Canada in a friendly international. Wembley then adopted the Welsh national team whilst the Millennium Stadium was being constructed and hosted a total of 7 internationals between November 1997 and April 1999. On 31st March 2012 at the new Wembley Stadium a world record crowd for a rugby union club match of 83,761 watched Harlequins defeat Saracens 24-19 in an Aviva Premiership fixture.