trials to ensure the best players were chosen. In the 1881 season a match was arranged between England and Wales, the very first international match for the Welsh. A space was left in the England team in the pack for an Oxford University player, which was given to Vassall. Wales were completely unprepared, and the team was constructed to appease regional sides, the result was an 8–0 defeat (82–0 by modern standards). Vassall had an excellent game, scoring a hat-trick of tries, the first individual to ever achieve this feat in an international rugby game. His reign as the highest try scorer in a single international game was short lived, as during the same encounter George Burton surpassed him minutes later by scoring four. Repton School By 1925, Vassall was master of Repton School, Derbyshire. Notes Bibliography External links 1860 births 1926 deaths English rugby union players Rugby union centres Blackheath F.C. players Oxford University RFC players England international rugby union players People educated at Marlborough College People from Tadcaster Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford World Rugby Hall of Fame inductees Rugby union players from Yorkshire