Underwood
Rory Underwood is arguably the greatest wing to ever play the game. Discover his career with RugbyPass, your resident rugby gurus.
Rory Underwood Bio
A prolific winger throughout his distinguished career, Rory Underwood remains England’s record international try scorer. Between 1984 and 1996, he scored 49 tries in 85 internationals for his country. Rory Underwood was inducted into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame in 2021.
Born 19 June 1963, Rory Underwood spent most of his childhood in Malaysia before he moved to Yorkshire in 1976. Following this, he joined the RAF and represented the Strike Command and main RAF rugby teams.
In 1983, Rory Underwood joined Leicester Tigers while remaining with the RAF. Between 1983 and 1997, he made 236 appearances for Leicester, scoring 670 points in the process. Perhaps unsurprisingly given his obvious prowess, he received his first England call up only a year later in 1984.
Throughout his glittering domestic and international career, Rory Underwood firmly established himself as one of the finest wings the game has ever seen. He won 85 caps for his country between 1984 and 1996 and six British & Irish Lions caps. Across his career with both sides, he scored a whopping 50 tries. As a result, he’s the leading try scorer for England and one of the leading try scorers of all time. In 1992, he also played for England alongside his brother, Tony. In doing so, they became the first brothers to play for England together since 1937.
After playing one season for the Bedford Blues in 1997-98, Rory Underwood retired from the game. Since, he’s held a number of corporate positions and he now owns a consulting company. In addition, he also regularly works as a motivational speaker and he was a non-executive director on the board at Leicester Tigers until 2020.
