Why the USA are reigning Olympic Rugby Champions and last night’s rugby club dinner

On the 18th of May 1924, in Colombes Stadium in Paris, 30,000 French fans jeered as America beat France in the Olympic rugby final. The Americans took the gold 17-3 and rugby ceased to be an Olympic sport.

In March of the previous year, Pembroke College RUFC won the Inter-Collegiate knockout cup. Amongst the players on that year’s team was WW Wakefield who had made his England debut in 1920 and had captained the University of Cambridge team in 1922. In total, Wakefield appeared for England 31 times and was captain on 13 occasions. He led England to back-to-back Rugby Union Five nations Grand Slams, with his final appearance for England against France in April 1927. The menu card above, from the Pembroke College RUFC dinner of 1923 is available here, price £120.

Moving ahead 87 years, and we find modern day Pembroke to be a very boaty college, with sporting success measured more on the river, than on the rugby field. However, some things remain the same, and this year's RUFC dinner began with duck liver pate, the same starter served on the 5th of March 1923 (and £120 is all it'll cost you to confirm that).

Following the pâté, we served traditional roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and gravy. To accompany the beef, and to honour our rugby club, our chefs prepared ‘special’ rugby ball shaped potatoes.

Vegetarians were served filled mushrooms, more reminiscent of the previous evening's hockey diner.

To finish the meal we served sticky toffee pudding, considered by Oprah Winfry to be the “Sexiest English creation since Colin Firth.”

Johnny Depp has also claimed to be a fan of Sticky Toffee Pudding. "I love sticky toffee pudding from London," says Johnny. "In some cruel way I've become dependent on it. "If it's on the table, it's gone in two seconds, then I'm sick with worry about the calories."

We served our version of this 'sexy' pudding with browned butter ice cream and caramel sauce.

I started this post with a photo of the USA Olympic rugby gold medal winning team of 1924, and I will finish with a photo of the English Rugby World Cup Winners from 2003, and a couple of rugby jokes

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England World Cup Winners 2003

A couple of rugby jokes

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  The Australian rugby coach discovers a white substance and calls practice of immediatly.2 hours later he finds out that the white substance was the try line.He called practice back on knowing that the team would never see the white substance again.

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  Wales v England at Cardiff,a small group of Wales supporters,unable to get tickets,are outside the stadium shouting up at the England supporters for updates on the state of play.There is a massive roar from the sellout crowd,the Welsh supporters outside shout up,"Whats happening,whats happening?".The English shout back,"All the welsh team have been carried off injured,the only man they have left on the field is Shane Williams".Ten minutes pass,then there is another massive roar from the crowd,the Welsh boys shout up"Whats happening?,Shane scored has he?"