World Rugby Museum, Twickenham

I first attended a rugby match at Twickenham stadium, south-west London, in the late 1980s, eight years before the World Rugby Museum was established in 1996. It took almost the same amount of time again before I finally visited the museum in 2003, the year of England’s Rugby World Cup win. In that short period the sporting landscape changed enormously and the past 16 years, with the London Olympics as its axis, has only highlighted this.

The academic study of sport has gathered pace too, spearheaded by De Montfort University in Leicester. Projects such as Played in Britain, which is charting the rich sporting heritage of the UK and is led by writer Simon Inglis, are also raising the profile of the subject. The ambition of the Sporting Heritage Subject Specialist Network headed by the River & Rowing Museum under Paul Mainds, and then the National Football Museum led by Kevin Moore realised the Our Sporting Life exhibition programme from 2010 to 2012. Using the London Olympics as its spur, it generated 100 shows and one million visitors in the UK.

With such productivity and creativity in the delivery and appreciation of sport, expectations run high for new projects. Indeed, the National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art in Newmarket, Suffolk, was shortlisted last year for the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year prize.

The World Rugby Museum’s latest incarnation – it was last refitted in 2008 – should be celebrated, not least for the challenges it has overcome. In 2015, the same year that England hosted the Rugby World Cup, stadium authorities drew up plans for the redevelopment of Twickenham’s east stand, where the museum was situated. Having missed out on a move to the new south stand along with the shop in 2006, and with little consideration given to it in the new development report, the museum faced pressure from commercial imperatives and the demands of a restrictive schedule.

Inventive approach

Finding the museum a new home and redesigning it in such a short space of time is an enormous achievement. So I should not quibble at the fact that none of the external signage seems to have been adapted to reflect its recent opening. The stadium skyline is dominated by the “Home of England Rugby” sign and various commercial logos occupy the ground-floor frontage.

Rebranded the World Rugby Museum in 2008, there is no obvious show of pride for this more inclusive aspect of the venue’s purpose. It is significant that the museum is again co-located with the rugby store, but disappointing that no improvements have been made to its signage and visibility within. Tour groups are guided from the shop floor, but visitors to the museum alone have to hunt for the entrance.

Setting aside the fact that the route from shop to museum remains to be completed, space opposite the main entrance was intended to become a temporary gallery but could not be adapted to public use. Instead, it has provided generous facilities for archive and object storage as well as the library, which is available to researchers. This promises much for the future management and use of the collection.

There remains a small temporary exhibition space in the permanent displays that opened with a show on the history of the stadium at Twickenham (now ended). The connection between the broader museum content and a sense of place was therefore clear, but this depends on the tour to bring the two together.

It is perhaps understandable, given the pressures I have outlined, that the museum has been designed and fitted out by Mather & Co. Chris Mather’s firm has extensive experience in this area of museum-making, both in the UK and abroad, including the Springbok Experience Rugby Museum of South African rugby, which opened in Cape Town in 2013. But I confess to a slight contrariness at the thought that yet another contract had gone its way. I feel the same restlessness as a neutral football fan during a period of Manchester United or Liverpool dominance.

Nevertheless, my first impressions were not of a formulaic interpretation of a story of sport but rather of an inventive combination of approaches; smart clean lines with minimal selections give way to a sudden plethora of objects. This cumulative richness not only provides reassurance in what is an architecturally uninspiring space, but also gives an interesting pace to the visit, drawing people quickly through the first few rooms before allowing visitors to revel in the more thematic open-plan areas.

Ambitious goal

The interpretation has characteristic elements of Mather & Co’s work on other projects but some stylish new effects too, and the overall atmosphere feels as though the designers and curatorial team have enjoyed a productive and balanced relationship. The museum itself has familiar elements carried over from its previous incarnation, but has about eight times as many more objects on display. A particular favourite are the final cases, which are layered with fans’ collections that are either an elegy to times past or encouragement to the collectors of the future.

Technology is evident throughout but does not dominate, except in a couple of places. Discreet screens complement the objects inside the cabinets – most without sound – and there are some interesting sections on war-time sacrifice and grassroots club rugby that make the most of oral history.

Interactives are kept simple, eschewing multiple layers of information, and an activity zone will no doubt entertain younger visitors – a classroom space is also available. Technical glitches are a continuous feature of established museum galleries, let alone those in their first weeks, so it was no surprise to experience some. And it was with no great disappointment to other visitors that poor sound quality dissuaded me from belting out Land of my Fathers karaoke-style.

Choosing to be identified as the World Rugby Museum was a challenging goal, perhaps an over-ambitious one. But it has clearly provided the incentive to overcome the numerous hurdles it faced.

Successful advocacy, determined collecting and a confidence in the message it sets out to convey provides the museum with personality, one that the Rugby Football Union should celebrate more widely.