The world of rugby at all levels were united as they mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday evening.
All Premiership teams paid tribute to the monarch and changed their Twitter logos to black, as well as all British teams in the United Rugby Championship, and The Sharks from South Africa and Zebre Parma of Italy also tweeted their condolences.
All tier one and two nations where she was still Queen: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (which competes as a unified island), Australia, New Zealand and Canada all shared their sorrow on social media too, while France retweeted the post (below) from Raphael Ibanez, who played 98 times for Les Bleus.
A statement on the RFU’s website read: “On behalf of the rugby union community in England, we offer our condolences to the whole Royal Family at this time.
“We are deeply grateful for Her Majesty’s support of our sport over many years, including serving as the RFU’s Patron for 64 years, helping the Union to celebrate its centenary in 1971, her reception at Buckingham Palace after England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, and honours bestowed on many of those who have served the game.
“Her Majesty earned the respect and affection of generations of rugby players and supporters here in England and around the world.
“World Rugby and its chairman Bill Beaumont also paid tribute, as well as the Premiership and United Rugby Championship themselves, and the British and Irish Lions.”
A number of pre-season games for URC teams have already been cancelled Cardiff vs Zebre, Scarlets vs Dragons, Glasgow Warriors vs Ulster, and both Premiership games that were due to be played on Friday night, Bristol vs Bath and Sale vs Northampton Saints, are being postponed.
Clubs are still awaiting news on when the latter will be played, but the former is set to go ahead at 5:30pm tomorrow.
A number of amateur clubs at all levels also paid their respects to Her Majesty, with Tweets (like the one above) coming from clubs as low as the 11th tier, and many opted to use the same photograph that was shared by the family itself to announce the news.
National League Rugby and the Championship have confirmed that all ten tiers below the Premiership will proceed as planned, with Coventry vs Bedford Blues and Cornish Pirates vs Richmond taking place tonight.
All rugby being played in Scotland and Wales this weekend has been postponed, despite Aberavon beating Swansea 39-17 last night following the news of the Queen’s death.
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