Paul Rendall, popular England rugby international who played a vital part in the national side’s resurgence – obituary

Paul Rendall, who has died aged 69 of motor neurone disease, was a prop forward for the England rugby union team during the mid-1980s and early 1990s, when he became part of a formidable front row with Brian Moore and Jeff Probyn.

Rendall won 28 caps in the loose-head position between his debut in 1984 and his swansong in 1991. He had begun his international career during a period of poor attainment for England but played a full role in the rapid improvements that transpired under the young captain Will Carling from 1988 onwards, leading to their appearance in the 1991 World Cup final.

Rendall did not play in that match, which ended in painful defeat to Australia, but he had featured earlier in the tournament as a replacement against Italy at the age of 37, making him one of the oldest players to appear in a World Cup. By then he had lost his guaranteed place to a younger man, Jason Leonard, and shortly afterwards announced his retirement.

He was known as “the Judge” in the England camp due to his task of administering light-hearted fines on tour, and Rendall’s tough presence in the scrum for England and his club side, Wasps, belied a witty, good-natured persona that marked him out as of one of the most liked men in the game.

A feisty front-row technician, powerfully built at 5ft 11in, Rendall was fully versed in the prop’s dark arts, and could throw a surreptitious punch or two if required. But off the field the emphasis was on enjoyment, and he fully immersed himself in the amateur-era culture of late-night beer drinking, storytelling and general messing around.

Once Carling’s brave new world had got under way, Rendall always quietly emphasised to the younger players the importance of having fun alongside the hard work. “I thought we needed to get fitter, needed to change, that we needed to do x, y and z, all these things,” said Carling. “Actually, Paul had all the values to keep as well, and it took me quite a long time to understand that those values were just as important as the stuff we needed to change.”

Rendall’s commitment to camaraderie later served him well as a successful coach with the Bracknell club in Berkshire, whom he guided to five promotions in six seasons, and then with Slough, with whom he was director of rugby until shortly before his death.

Paul Anthony George Rendall was born on February 18 1954 in Islington, north London, to Victor, a mechanic, and his wife, Julia, but moved to Slough aged three and lived in that area for the rest of his life. At St Joseph’s Catholic High School he was good enough to play for England Under-16s before moving on to Slough RFC while earning his living as a welder.

From Slough, in 1975, Rendall joined Wasps, where he linked up with Jeff Probyn in the scrum and was selected for the England Under-23 and B teams, although he had to wait for his full international debut until he was 30, against Wales in the Five Nations at Twickenham in 1984, alongside Peter Wheeler and Phil Blakeway in the front row. His next match was in June that year against South Africa in Johannesburg, where he was chosen for the first time as judge in the players’ court – proving himself a master of perverse rulings and bizarre punishments.

With only two caps over the next two years, it was not until 1987 that Rendall became fully established in the England side, playing throughout that year’s Five Nations championship and then in the 1987 World Cup in Australia, including the 16-3 quarter-final defeat to Wales, in which he was probably fortunate to have to come off with an eye injury. England’s performance in that match was hopeless, and led to a marked change in direction under a new manager, Geoff Cooke, and then a new captain, Carling.

Appearing for the first time in combination with Moore and Probyn in January 1988 against France – on Carling’s debut – the trio played together in almost all of Rendall’s remaining England matches and were a key ingredient in the side’s new successes, leading to a Five Nations grand slam in 1991 and the World Cup final in the same year. By then, however, Rendall had lost his regular place to the 21-year-old Leonard, and was on the bench for both the grand slam matches and the World Cup.

His last game for England came at Twickenham against Italy in October 1991, when he was brought on as a replacement. Over the years he had also played 10 times for the Barbarians, as well as for Buckinghamshire and Middlesex.

In retirement Rendall was snapped up by Bracknell, a community club in his own friendly image. As their full-time coach and eventually director of rugby he had a dramatic impact on the club’s fortunes, taking the first team of local lads up through the rugby pyramid from the Berks, Dorset and Wilts League to the second-tier National League One, where they found themselves pitted against famous old teams such as Coventry, London Welsh, Bedford and Worcester.

“We didn’t have much when I started, just a bunch of kids, really,” he said. “They were wetter than wet behind the ears. But we decided that they were the future, and a lot of them were still with us after we’d gone up six times.”

Rendall later moved on to Slough as their director of rugby, and remained there until he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2022. As a measure of the affection in which he was universally held, when news of his condition emerged, England players of his era reunited at Twickenham to fund-raise on his behalf, and Bracknell raised £79,000 to help him with medical needs.

Paul Rendall is survived by his wife, Sue, and their two children.

Paul Rendall, born February 18 1954, died June 13 2023