Swing-low sweet chariot
Coming for to
carry me home.
Swing-row sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home.
I looked over Jordan
And what did I
see
Coming for to carry me home
A band of angels coming after me
Coming for to carry me home.
Coming
for to carry me home.
Swing-row sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me
home.
If you get there before I do
Coming
for to carry me home
Tell all my friends I'm coming too
Coming for to
carry me home.
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing-row sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home.
(Should be sung loudly and accompanied
with pantomime, then whistled and accompanied
with pantomime, and then simply pantomimed without any other sounds.)
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" has been sung by rugby players and fans for some decades, and there are associated gestures, sometimes used in a drinking game, which requires those who wrongly perform the gestures to buy a round of drinks. It became associated with the English national side, in particular, in 1988. Coming into the last match of the 1988 season, against Ireland at Twickenham, England had lost 15 of their previous 23 matches in the Five Nations Championship.
The Twickenham crowd had only seen one solitary England try in the previous two years and at half time against Ireland they were 0–3 down. However during the second half England scored six tries to give them a 35–3 win. Three of the tries came in quick succession from Chris Oti making his Twickenham debut.
A group of boys from the Benedictine school Douai following a tradition at their school games sang "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" whenever a try was scored. When Oti scored his second try, amused spectators standing close to the boys joined in, and when Oti scored his hat-trick the song was heard around the ground. The song is still regularly sung at matches by English supporters.
The England national rugby union team returned from the 2003 World Cup triumph in Australia on a plane dubbed "Sweet Chariot".[12]