England v Emerging Nation - Executive Box

A former market garden, bought for under six thousand pounds, became the permanent home of English rugby.

On 15 January 1910, England played Wales in the first international at Twickenham, a ground purchased by the RFU's Billy Williams for £5,572. The site had previously been a market garden, earning it the enduring nickname 'The Cabbage Patch'. England won 11-6. Twickenham would become the permanent home of English rugby and, in time, the stage for every autumn international.

Twickenham's first autumn fixture drew South Africa in 1969; the protests outside were as loud as the crowd within.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, southern hemisphere nations formalised their touring schedules to the north. These autumn visits became regular fixtures, with the Springboks, All Blacks and Wallabies rotating tours. England hosted South Africa at Twickenham in November 1969, a match that drew significant attention both on and off the pitch amid growing anti-apartheid protests.

Professionalism killed the lengthy tour; in its place, November delivered something far sharper.

The declaration of rugby union as an open, professional sport in 1995 transformed the international calendar. With players now contracted and commercially valuable, the old-style lengthy tours became impractical. In their place, a concentrated November window emerged, allowing southern hemisphere teams to play a series of tests against northern opponents in consecutive weekends. The modern Autumn Internationals were born.

World champions at Twickenham; the autumn internationals had never felt so unmissable.

Clive Woodward's England side entered the 2003 autumn internationals as the reigning world champions, having lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in Sydney that November. The squad featuring Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson and Jason Robinson had already used the autumn window to devastating effect in previous years, beating New Zealand, Australia and South Africa at Twickenham in consecutive Novembers. The autumn tests became must-see occasions.

Autumn Saturdays at Twickenham became a proving ground for rugby's rising nations, and England's bench benefited quietly in return.

World Rugby's commitment to growing the game saw emerging nations increasingly included in the autumn schedule. Teams such as Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Georgia and Japan began receiving regular invitations to face Tier 1 nations during November. For England, these fixtures offered a chance to blood new talent and build squad depth, while for the visiting sides they represented a rare opportunity to test themselves against the world's best at iconic venues.

England lifted the inaugural Autumn Nations Cup trophy, beating France at Twickenham, after the pandemic quietly rewrote the November fixture calendar.

With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting international travel, the traditional autumn tours were replaced by the Autumn Nations Cup, a tournament featuring the Six Nations teams plus Fiji and Georgia. England won the inaugural edition, beating France in the final at Twickenham. The experiment demonstrated the appetite for a more structured competition format during the November window.

82,000 voices at Twickenham; some atmospheres simply cannot be engineered from a boardroom.

From 2022, the November tests were officially branded as the Autumn Nations Series under a new agreement between World Rugby, the northern unions and the southern hemisphere bodies. The deal guaranteed a set number of fixtures and revenue-sharing arrangements, providing financial stability for emerging nations while ensuring the traditional powerhouse matchups remained the centrepiece. England's Twickenham fixtures continued to sell out, with 82,000 supporters creating one of the most formidable atmospheres in world rugby.