History of the Rugby World Cup

The first Rugby World Cup was held in 1987, hosted by Australia and New Zealand who pushed for the tournament to be approved. Since the first tournament, there have been five others, at four-yearly intervals. cite web | publisher=scrum.com | title=History of the World Cup|url=http://www.scrum.com/rwc99/wcup_history/default.asp| accessdate=10 August | accessyear=2006] The most recent tournament was hosted by France in September / October 2007.

International competition prior to the World Cup

Apart from regular test matches and touring sides, tournaments that resembled a world cup format - albeit not of its scale, but in terms of international nations competing, are competitions such as the Summer Olympics and the International Championship/Five Nations Championship.

Rugby union was played at the Summer Olympics on four occasions, 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924. Although these competitions did not involve full national sides, and usually only had three or four participating nations at any individual event. The International Championship/Five Nations has been played since 1883, it is one of the oldest international rugby tournaments, involving only European nations.

Early attempts

There are several stories that depict suggestions of staging a rugby union world cup before the 1980s. One of the earliest known pioneers was Harold Tolhurst, an Australian player who would later become a referee. It has been said that Tolhurst brought up the idea of such a tournament as early as the late 1950s. cite web | publisher=worldcupweb.com | title=The History of RWC.|url=http://www.worldcupweb.com/WCrugby/history.asp| accessdate=10 August | accessyear=2007] It has been said that in 1968, the International Rugby Board made it known that it did not want its unions to be a part of such a competition that resembled a world cup.

Similar ideas arose during the last years of the pre-WC era. Bill McLaughin, who was the president of the Australian Rugby Union in 1979, suggested the idea of staging a World Cup in 1988, as the event would coincide with Australia's bicentenary celebrations.

Early 1980s

In 1982, Neil Durden-Smith suggested that the world cup should be held in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s. The IRB discussed the proposal in March 1983, but the concept did not go ahead. Another meeting was held in June 1983, where Australia put forth a proposal that would see them host the first event - if it should happen. New Zealand joined the campaign, putting forth their own proposal in March of the next year. The IRB went on to conduct a feasibility study - Australia and New Zealand joined forces to bid for the hosting of an inaugural World Cup.

A subsesquent IRFB meeting was held in Paris in March 1985. It is known that originally, all four home nations were opposed to the idea, and the most vocal supporters were Australia, New Zealand and France. It is believed that South Africa's decision to vote in favour of the event was the turning point in the voting. South Africa voted in favour of the tournament going ahead, though they knew they would not be competing due to the sports boycott at the time.cite web | publisher=cnn.com | title=World Cup History|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/rugby/world_cup/news/1999/09/26/rwc_history/index.html| accessdate=7 May | accessyear=2006] South Africa's vote saw England, followed by Wales, change to be in favour as well.

The first tournament

The 1987 world cup was hosted by both Australia and New Zealand. 32 matches were played from over a period of May 22 to June 20. The tournament featured one African nation, three Americas nations, one Asian nation, seven European nations and four Oceanic nations. One notable omission was the Springboks who were not competing due to the international sports boycott.

Seven places were automatically filled by the IRFB members, with invitations being sent out to fill remaining places. In total there were 16 nations in the competition. France played Australia in the semi-finals and New Zealand, Wales. New Zealand became the first ever World Cup Champions, defeating France 29 points to 9 at Eden Park in Auckland.

1990s

The 1991 Rugby World Cup was hosted by Great Britain, Ireland and France, with the tournament final to be played at the home of English rugby, at Twickenham. For the first time, a qualifying tournament replaced the previously used invitation format. The qualifying tournament involved 32 teams. England qualified for the final by defeating Scotland at Murrayfield. Australia qualified the next day. Australia won, defeating England 12-6.

The 1995 Rugby World Cup was hosted by South Africa, being the first time that all matches would be played in just a single country. It was the first time that South Africa participated in the tournament following the end of their international sports boycott due to the apartheid regime. South Africa won, defeating New Zealand 15-12. Joel Stransky kicked a drop-goal in extra time to grab the victory for South Africa. Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey and matching cap, famously presented the Webb Ellis Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar. The tournament also saw the emergence of rugby's first global superstar, All Black winger Jonah Lomu. Both he and Marc Ellis finished the tournament as the top try scorers.

The 1999 Rugby World Cup was hosted by Wales with matches played in England, France, Scotland and Ireland. There were further changes to the rules of automatic qualification for this tournament, where, only the champions, the runners-up, the third place play-off winners from 1995 and the host nation automatically qualified.

65 rugby nations played in qualifying competitions for the 1999 tournament, and the participating nations increased from 16 to 20. France's shock 43-31 semifinal win over the All Blacks is regarded as one of the biggest upsets and also one of the best games in the history of the World Cup. Australia defeated France in the final 35-12.

2000 - present

The 2003 world cup was hosted by Australia. It was originally to be co-hosted with New Zealand, but disagreements over scheduling and signage at venues led to Australia going it alone. England won the tournament, defeating Australia 20 points to 17. With 21 seconds left before sudden death England's Jonny Wilkinson landed a drop goal to win the tournament final. England became the first northern hemisphere nation to win a Rugby World Cup. Upon returning to England, the English side was greeted by an estimated 750,000 people at a street parade celebrating their victory.cite web | publisher=bbc.co.uk | title=England honours World Cup stars |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3300061.stm| accessdate=24 August|accessyear=2006]

The 2007 World Cup in France, also with matches in Wales and Scotland was won by South Africa. Blowouts in scores in pool matches against minnow nations changed into a finals series dominated by defence. The 2011 tournament will be hosted by New Zealand.

Overview

¹ Did not compete in 1987 and 1991 because of a sports boycott on South Africa due to Apartheid.

² Known as Western Samoa until 1997. Not invited to play in the 1987 World Cup.

³ Did not qualify for the 1995 World Cup.

⁴ Knocked out in playoff to decide quarter-finals line-up.

See also

* History of rugby union

References

External links

* [http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/ Rugbyworldcup.com]
* [http://www.irb.com/ IRB.com]