Rory Underwood, MBE, DL (born 19 June 1963)[1] is an English former rugby union player.
His father was a Yorkshire engineer who worked in Malaysia where he met and married Underwood's Chinese-Malaysian mother.
Underwood was educated at Barnard Castle School (with fellow rugby international Rob Andrew), followed by initial officer training at RAF College Cranwell.
He won 85 England and 6 Lions caps between 1984 and 1996 (then an English record, later surpassed by Jason Leonard – it remained the highest total for an English back, though that has since been overtaken by Jonny Wilkinson), scoring a record 49 tries for England, and 1 for the British Lions, making him one of the leading try scorers of all time.
Underwood was capable of playing on either right or left wing depending on who was selected on the opposite side.
More usually seen on the left wearing shirt number 11, in 1988 he switched to the right (and shirt number 14) to accommodate Chris Oti: in 1990 on the right opposite Mark Bailey, but on the left when partnering Simon Halliday, continuing on the left in 1991 opposite Nigel Heslop: in the 1991 World Cup he played on the right in partnership with Oti early on, then on the left in partnership with Heslop until the quarter-final and Halliday for the final two rounds, an arrangement that persisted throughout the 1992 Five Nations championship – which was initially billed as his final season before retirement, Underwood scoring tries in each of the first three matches of the championship, and coming close to scoring against Wales.
When leaving the RAF he planned on setting up a company called Teamwork with his friend John Peters.
Underwood set up UPH, a management and teamwork training company, with John Peters and Martyn Helliwell on 20 May 1999.
His brother Tony Underwood became a commercial pilot after retiring and also played rugby for England and has two daughters.