The First Rugby World Cup

The first Rugby world cup was held in New Zealand and Australia in 1987. New Zealand were the winners.

It was 116 years after the first Test Match before the first Rugby World Cup started. It was mainly an Australasian initiative. Initially the World Cup was only supported by a few countries. France supported from the start and South Africa came in later. At first the heartland of Rugby (England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales) did not want the World Cup to go ahead but there resistance to it slowly crumbled as the World Cup began to look more and more like it was going to happen.

The main objection to the world cup going ahead was that it would change the game and in particular it would affect the amateur principle. Their Prediction was right.

The idea of a Rugby World Cup had been thrown up before by an Australian player turned ref Harold Tolhurst in the late fifties. A major set back for the actual tournament going ahead was when the International Rugby Board (IRB) forbade it's countries to get involved with any international tournament along the lines of the Soccer World Cup.

The president of the Australian Rugby Union in 1979 suggested a World Cup in 1988, this being the year of Australia's bicentenary celebration. In 1982 an Englishman and an ex aide to the governor-general in New Zealand , Neil Durden-Smiths suggested there be a World Cup in the British Isles in 1985 or 1986.

The International Rugby Board discussed the idea of a Rugby World Cup in March 1983 but later dismissed it claiming that there was not enough support for such an idea. Also among the objections bought up was the fact that they did not want such a tournament to be run by commercial operators.

Australia and New Zealand each proposed a World Cup. At an emergency meeting in June 1983 Australia proposed a World Cup and put itself as host. New Zealand put forward it's case in March 1984. At that meeting The International Rugby Board started to think about a World Cup feasibility study. Australia & New Zealand formed a joint working committee and the study began on the 1st December 1984.

The International Rugby Board met again in Paris on 20th-21st March 1985, this meeting turned out to be crucial to the Rugby World Cup. The voting of the International Rugby Board members remains a secret, however it is not that big of a secret. It is and was no secret that England, Scotland, Ireland & Wales were not in favor of the idea. Australia, New Zealand & France were in favor. Eight votes were needed to win and South Africa's vote was vital. With the full knowledge that politics would keep South Africa out of the event, Danie Craven & Fritz Eloff voted in favor. This meant that there was a stalemate, but then John Kendall-Carpenter of England broke ranks and voted for the World Cup, and then following this the Welsh vote also moved.

The Rugby World Cup was then approved by 10 votes to 6. It was scheduled to take place in Australia and New Zealand from the 22nd May to the 20th June 1987. This gave the host nations around two years to prepare for the first Rugby World Cup.

Below is the setup and team list etc:

New Zealand, Scotland, France, Fiji, Ireland, England, Australia and Wales qualify for the Quarter Finals.

Wales V Australia 22-21

Venue - Eden Park

New Zealand's Captain - David Kirk

New Zealand's Coach - Brian Lochore

Final Match Referee - Kerry Fitzgerald of Australia

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