An Evening with Will Carling in Conversation with Matt Stadlen      

Will Carling OBE, England's youngest ever former English rugby union captain, and most successful and longest-serving captain aged 22. He won 72 caps from 1988 to 1996, captaining England 59 times. Under his captaincy, England won Five Nations Grand Slam in 1991, 1992 and 1995, and reached the 1991 World Cup final.

Carling began his British representative career for the England Schoolboys team in 1982, having played at Sedbergh, the same school that produced 1920s English great William Wakefield. His captaincy coincided with England’s most successful run since the 1920s.

Despite his success as captain, he was briefly and famously stripped of his title after he described the Rugby Football Union executives as “57 old farts” in 1995.

Away from rugby football, Will has built a successful business founding businesses, as well as writing several books about his life and playing career, including Will Carling: My Autobiography (1998). He also published The Way to Win: Strategies for Success in Business and Sport (1996; written with Robert Heller). In 1991 Carling was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and won the ITV Sports Personality of the Year.

Presented in association with Clive Conway Productions