What rugby team is Prince William supporting at Rugby World Cup 2023?
pThe Prince of Wales has been present for huge rugby matches, is patron of the a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/wales-rugby/Welsh Rugby Union/a, has been known to attend a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/wimbledon/Wimbledon/a finals and big events during the 2012 London Olympics./p
figure id=attachment_19756382 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ff860b0c-0eef-4f64-abaf-f39659dc1b16.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-19756382 width=960 height=628 /figcaption class=wp-caption-textPrince William is regularly spotted at matches at Aston Villa/figcaptionfigcreditGetty/figcredit/figure
pBut his true sporting passion lies with football./p
pHe is a FA president and regularly attends England matches./p
pYet the same cannot be said of his rugby affiliations./p
pSo who will the heir to the throne be supporting in France? /p
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h2Who is Prince William supporting at the Fifa World Cup? /h2
pPrince William has joked he is supporting both England and Wales in their World Cup 2022 campaigns./p
pHowever, he gave the England team a send off before they headed off to Qatar, telling them: #8220;The rest of the country is behind you, we are all rooting for you. Enjoy it.#8221;/p
pBut as his royal title is the Prince of Wales, his words have caused a bit of controversy, mostly with Welsh actor Michael Sheen./p
pSheen tweeted: #8220;He (Prince William) can, of course, support whoever he likes and as President of the FA his role makes visit understandable #8211; but surely he sees holding the title Prince of Wales at the same time is entirely inappropriate? Not a shred of embarrassment? Or sensitivity to the problem here?#8221;/p
pPrince William has also said: #8220;I’m telling everyone I’m supporting both, definitely. I can’t lose./p
p“I’ve supported England since I’ve been quite small. But I support Welsh rugby and that’s my way of doing it./p
p“I happily support Wales over England in the rugby so I’ve got to be able to play carefully with my affiliations./p
p“I worry otherwise if I suddenly drop England to support Wales then that doesn’t look right for the sport either. So I can’t do that.#8221;/p
figure id=attachment_19756488 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 647pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/aston-villa-v-derby-county-493279115.jpg?strip=allamp;w=637 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-19756488 width=637 height=453 /figcaption class=wp-caption-text/figcaptionfigcreditReuters/figcredit/figurePrince William was at Aston Villa#8217;s playoff victory against Derby County, where he watched the game with former striker John Carew[/caption]
h2What club does Prince William support?/h2
pYou would be wrong in thinking that William supports the team his dad, King Charles, does./p
pCharles supports Burnley. But when William was younger, he decided to go a different route./p
pWilliam supports Aston Villa and has been present at plenty of their games over the past two decades./p
pExplaining his reasoning for supporting Villa, he said that he didn#8217;t want to follow in the footsteps of schoolmates who all chose to support a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/team/1196656/manchester-united/Manchester United/a or Chelsea./p
pPrince William said: “A long time ago at school I got into football big time. I was looking around for clubs./p
p#8220;All my friends at school were either Manchester United fans or Chelsea fans and I didn’t want to follow the run of the mill teams./p
p“I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional rollercoaster moments./p
p“a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/team/1196670/aston-villa/Aston Villa’s/a always had a great history. I have got friends of mine who support Aston Villa and one of the first FA Cup games I went to was Bolton v Aston Villa back in 2000. Sadly, Villa went on to lose to Chelsea./p
p“It was fantastic, I sat with all the fans with my red beanie on, and I sat with all the Brummie fans and had a great time./p
p“It was the atmosphere, the camaraderie and I really felt that there was something I could connect with./p
p#8220;People like Paul Merson were playing and I thought if people like him can play as well as he does, knowing the struggles he was under at the time…this is a club I can support./p
p#8220;I was also born in ‘82, the year we won the (European) Cup, so I feel the history and pedigree around Villa has always been quite close to me.#8221;/p
figure id=attachment_19756647 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/embargoed-publication-uk-newspapers-48-590252524.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-19756647 width=960 height=576 /figcaption class=wp-caption-text/figcaptionfigcreditGetty/figcredit/figurePrince William supported Wales during the 2015 Rugby World Cup when they beat England at Twickenham[/caption]
h2Which international rugby team does William support?/h2
pWhen it comes to the oval ball, the Prince of Wales backs Wales./p
pHe is a patron of the Welsh Rugby Union and is regularly seen at major international fixtures./p
pDuring the 2015 Rugby World Cup, when England and Wales played each other in the same pool, he was wearing a red Welsh jersey at Twickenham, while Harry wore a white English shirt./p
pAnd Wales strongWON/strong the match 28-25 and the Red Rose were dumped out of their home Rugby World Cup a few days later./p
pIn the 2023 Rugbt World Cup, Prince William will no doubt be supporting Warren Gatland#8217;s men, while Kate has been given the job of supporting England./p