Could someone explain how “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” became the anthem of British rugby? I see no possible connection between the two, not to mention the song is not even British or European.
WRS
What I found was that it started in Northern England, when unionized miners sang it to show solidarity with American slaves, from which the song originated. From the miners, it made it to rugby matches, where drunken bellowers added the vulgar motions that accompany it.
Thank you so very much, Liberal.
WRS
What vulgar motions accompany it?
According to my research, sexual gropings and sexually illustrative hand gestures, such as a penis “hanging low”. There is also audible vulgarity, as in singing “coming for to carry me home” as “cumming for to carry me home” with an exaggerated, almost Americanized, flattening of the vowel sound.
I’ve never seen ‘vulgar motions’ associated with the song. At least, never in a rugby context.
Nothin’ to add 'cept I like the version by UB40 best. 
I have - when I played rugby and there was singing on the bus home. The action associated with the aforementioned “cumming for to carry me home” was simulated masturbation. A game for gentleman…
Give me Eric Clapton any day.
Nice to see such a multi-cultural team adopting a negro spiritual as their anthem.