Top 10 crowd anthems

Rugby has a deep and rich relationship with music. From anthems to supporters’ songs, it provides a fitting soundtrack to get the crowd going.

They echo around stadium terraces, inspire an entire nation and reduce grown men to tears.

We delve into the notes that reverberate through rugby stadium in the world that get the crowd on their feet and singing as one to find the top ten crowd anthems.

Some stadiums play music after the home team scores and others excite the speakers before and after the game itself, but each song brings about vigor in the stands that is harder to ignite without rhythm.

Whether it be Welsh hymns, the Japanese victory rap or England belting out a William Blake poem on a regular basis, a big rugby match simply cannot happen without the accompanying chorus of 60,000 fans trying to hit the high note.

1. England

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

The sound of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot being belted out by an 80,000 crowd at Twickenham, became popular with England fans in 1988 when Chris Oti, scored a hat-trick against Ireland at Twickenham.

It has long been an anthem of England fans and is always belted out lustily whenever the national team plays at Twickenham.

England followers have previously been accused before of “cultural appropriation” when Swing Low has both echoed round the Rugby Football Union’s London headquarters and been heard at away games.

But Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, which included the toppling of a statue of a slave trader in the English city of Bristol, led many British organisations to examine their historic links to slavery.

England forward Maro Itoje, one of several black and mixed race players in the current squad, recently said: “I don’t think anyone at Twickenham is singing it with malicious intent. But the background of that song is complicated.”

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is thought to have been composed by a slave called Wallace Wallis with his wife Minerva in the mid-1800s.

There are several theories about its meaning, including that it conveyed a coded message to slaves, instructing them to escape. However, Horace Clarence Boyer, a prominent scholar of African-American music, believed the song was about death.

The RFU eventually decided they will not ban England fans from singing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” but will educate them on the history of the song and its links with American slavery, the domestic governing body said.

It was decided that it will use its social media and event audiences to proactively educate fans on the history and provenance of the song as well as providing platforms for diverse voices across the game.”

RFU chief Bill Sweeney no longer sings the song, while England head coach Eddie Jones said he would not attempt to stop fans at the Twickenham Stadium from doing so.

The RFU said it would release a short documentary on the song’s history which will feature prominent current and former Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) England players.

2. Wales

Delilah

Nobody knows why Wales have yet to win a Rugby World Cup but if there is one thing the Welsh are 100% the best in the world at, it’s singing. From walloping chapel hymns to the downright debauched, the Welsh fans have their side covered for all occasions. Even Stereophonics have got in on the act, penning As Long as We Beat the English 16 years ago, which is still banged out in matches today.

The plucky Welsh have got themselves in a spot of bother with their love of Tom Jones’s Delilah. High profile people like Dafydd Iwan, a former Plaid Cymru president and folk singer, have argued that it promotes domestic violence and should be banned from the stadium. While the topic is a bit dodgy, most rugby fans are signing it because it’s a great song, and the lyrics are shown on the Millennium Stadium screens before matches. In Jones’s own words – “if it’s going to be taken literally, I think it takes the fun out of it.” The WRU, in turn, compared the pop classic to a Shakespearian tragedy (ahem).

3. Wales

Waltzing Matilda

The Aussies have chosen a catchy tune that’s, if not Shakespearian, then at least Cormac McCarthy in its themes. It’s about a homeless Aussie gentleman waltzing around the country with his Matilda (a bag) over his shoulder, who steals sheep and ends up killing himself by jumping in a river; it is categorically not a song about dancing with a pretty girl.

This is what the Australian Rugby Union thought when they went and decided to ban the singing of the song during the World Cup in 2003, which they were hosting. (And which England won). They deemed it irrelevant to Australian culture (the tune, for example, was taken from Scotland’s Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea) presumably because they didn’t want people to find out what the song was actually about. This, naturally, annoyed 99% of Australia (including the Prime Minister) and they sang it anyway. Quite loudly.

4. Ireland

Molly Malone

Molly Malone (also known as “Cockles and Mussels”) is a popular song which has acquired the status of an Irish anthem. It has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin City in Ireland. The song is sung by supporters of Dublin GAA, Leinster Rugby teams and Irish international rugby team, and tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but died young, of a fever.

However, there is no evidence that the song is based on a real woman who lived in the 17th century, or at any other time, despite claims that records of her birth and death have been located.

You’ll know the tune if you’ve ever watched an Irish sports match, having been adopted by football and rugby fans.

5. Scotland

Flower of Scotland

Flower of Scotland is a Scottish patriotic song and one of the unofficial national anthems of Scotland, along with “Scotland the Brave” and “Scots Wha Hae”. It was written and composed by Roy Williamson, and it was published in 1967.

Flower of Scotland was adopted by the Scottish rugby team in 1990. The football team followed in 1997 while the Commonwealth team adopted it in 2010. Before that, it was Scotland the Brave that dominated the sports stands.

6. South Africa

Shosholoza

Shosholoza has become a national traditional song in South Africa for the past decade which was sung for the first time by the South African fans during the 1995 IRB Rugby World Cup.

“Shoshaloza” has no specific meaning & was derived from the onomatopoeic & repetitive sound of the train wheels transporting the migrant workers back to their families in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

But how did Shosholoza – which originated as a migrant mine workers’ song – become a rallying cry for the Springboks?

It was incorporated into sporting events, starting with the Comrades Marathon where many participants were mineworkers. It then made its way into boxing and football and when the 1995 Rugby World Cup arrived with the dawn of democracy in South Africa, the SA Rugby Union decided to use it as the anthem for the Springboks.

7. England

Sweet Caroline

It has become an anthem for many sports in England, from darts to rugby league, with fans reveling in the thought that “good times never seemed so good”.

Yet its origin as a sporting anthem appears to be across the Atlantic, where Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox lays claim to sparking its popularity.

It is one of those classic, timeless songs that you would have heard being murdered by dodgy singers at karaoke bars or the track which fills dance floors on a night out for generations.

But then Sweet Caroline was never solely a football song. It had been the staple at rugby, a singalong classic that has captured the hearts and vocal chords of millions across the nation.

8. Australia

Waltzing Matilda

It is a ballad about a sheep thief who drowns in a pond but, to Australians, Waltzing Matilda embodies the national spirit and is routinely belted out at major sporting events and players say that it fires them up for battle. The real anthem, Advance Australia Fair, is a stilted, austere song and few people know the words beyond the first verse.

Waltzing Matilda has been synonymous with Australia dating back to 1899 when it was sung by Australian soldiers at the Boer War in southern Africa.

John Williamson, a country singer who often leads sporting crowds in a rousing singalong, said: “That song is our number one song. It always has been and always will be.”

9. South Africa

World in Union

World in Union was first heard at the 1991 Rugby World Cup when it was performed by the legendary New Zealand soprano, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

The song was recorded by Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1995.

The male choral group from South Africa had been singing since the 1960s but achieved international recognition through their work with Paul Simon on his seminal Graceland album. Their music also became synonymous with the release of Nelson Mandela and the abolishment of Apartheid. It seems fitting then that their version of World in Union recorded for the 1995 World Cup will forever be connected to the tournament’s most iconic moment, when South African skipper Francois Pienaar lifted the Webb-Ellis trophy at Ellis Park accompanied with a rugby shirt-wearing President Mandela. Stirring stuff.

10. New Zealand

Haka

New Zealand traditionally always sang a song called Ka Mate, which is a war cry written in 1820 by a Maori chief Te Rauparaha.

It was first performed by the All Blacks in 1888, but only at away matches until 1986.

The Ka Mate Haka is also performed during high profile funerals or to greet foreign dignitaries.

But in 2005, they came up with a newer version called Kapa O Pango, which is exclusive to the All Blacks rugby team and only performed during certain matches.

Nowadays, whenever New Zealand take to the field, nobody knows which version of the Haka they will sing.