page_title: Reg Birkett
section_title: Rugby career
hierarchical_section_title: Reg Birkett / Rugby career
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of the first England rugby side in 1871, with players from the Clapham Rovers Football Club highlighted.
context_page_description: Reginald Halsey Birkett was an English footballer who played for Clapham Rovers, as well as the English national side. He also played international rugby union for England in 1871, in the first international rugby match. In this match he scored England's first try.
context_section_description: Birkett was an important figure in the formation of the Rugby Football Union as well. Clapham Rovers were one of the twenty-one London and suburban football clubs that followed Rugby School rules that assembled at the Pall Mall Restaurant in Regent Street and formed the Rugby Football Union on 26 January 1871 and Birkett was not only present but also became one of the thirteen original committee members.
  Birkett was selected for the first international rugby match for England vs Scotland in 1871. In this match he scored England's first ever try, although at the time a try did not gain points, but rather was the means by which a team was granted the opportunity of converting the try into a point scoring goal. His brother Louis and his son John later also played for England. Of his rugby ability a near contemporary account states that he "was very useful both forward and behind the scrummage, and had plenty of pace."
caption: 1871 England rugby squad with Birkett highlighted
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