A medal from one of English rugby’s most celebrated nights has changed hands for £54,000, while a pair of shorts associated with football icon Eric Cantona and other sporting keepsakes attracted collectors at an auction in England. The sale, held by sports memorabilia specialist Budds on October 13, featured 332 lots spanning rugby, football, cricket, boxing, golf and tennis, according to the auction house’s official results.
The medal commemorates England’s 20-17 victory over Australia in the Rugby World Cup final on November 22, 2003. His 2003 Six Nations Championship winners’ medal fetched £7,500, while the medal he received as a runner-up at the 2007 Rugby World Cup sold for £5,000. A medal from the 2004 Heineken Cup final, won with Wasps, brought £4,400. Five pewter tankards from different points in his career and associated sporting activities sold for £1,600. Another unusual lot was the table used by presenters in the BBC television studio during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Formerly owned by singer Robbie Williams , it sold for £800 after attracting interest from bidders in Britain and the United States, The Guardian reported.
Played in Sydney, the match went into extra time before Jonny Wilkinson’s famous drop goal secured England’s first men’s Rugby World Cup title. Dallaglio, who captained England during his career, was part of the squad that lifted the trophy. The table offered a different kind of sporting connection: rather than coming from the pitch, it was associated with the television coverage through which millions followed the tournament.
A jersey worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan during the 1998 NBA Finals sold for more than £10 million in October 2026, according to the newspaper. In football, the shirt Diego Maradona wore during Argentina’s 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England was sold for more than £7 million in 2022. Ultimately, the £54,000 hammer price placed a piece of England’s 2003 triumph in a new owner’s hands.
Some sales operate on a vastly different scale. The auction’s other lots, from Cantona-associated shorts to a television studio table, showed how sporting history can survive in objects that might otherwise appear ordinary, becoming valuable to those who want to own a fragment of the game’s past.