Tracking down the winners of the Rugby World Cup over the years

Will England win the coveted title after a gap of 12 years on home soil?

The 2015 Rugby World Cup will be the 8th edition of rugby union’s premier tournament. It is not as old as some of the other world cups of other sports, having its origins in the 80s after much deliberation.

June 1983 is when the initial proposal for a world cup for rugby came up with Australia deciding to put its case forward as host. Neighbours and rivals New Zealand soon joined the bandwagon and put up their hands as well to host the tournament.

That forced the International Rugby Board to constitute a feasibility study and the outcome of that was the decision to award the inaugural world cup to the Tasman rivals as co-hosts. In the beginning, though, all the Northern Hemisphere countries apart from France were against the idea. South Africa’s vote in favour of the event, however, made the others reconsider and England and Wales went on to say yes. And the first Rugby World Cup was born.

The First Edition – 1987

The tournament saw 16 countries participate and New Zeeland’s All Blacks were the first winners, beating France in the final 29-9 in front of their home fans at Eden Park in Auckland.Australia, England, the United States of America, Japan, Wales, Ireland, Canada, Tonga, Fiji, Argentina, New Zealand, France, Italy, Scotland, Romania and Zimbabwe were the teams that participated. South Africa’s Springboks voted in favour of the tournament despite knowing that they wouldn’t be able to take part thanks to their international sports boycott due to the apartheid regime at home.

Subsequent world cups

1991 - hosted by Great Britain, Ireland and France. Unlike the first edition, where teams were brought in through invite, an actual qualification tournament involving 32 teams was used in 1991. Australia’s Wallabies won this one, beating England 12-6 in the final at Twickenham.

1995 - Hosted by South Africa, the third edition marked the first time the whole tournament was played in a single country after having co-hosts in the first two. It also saw the entry of the Springboks into the competition after the end of their international boycott.

And in a wonderful story, they went on to win the tournament on home soil, beating the All Blacks 15-12, courtesy of a drop goal in extra time from Joel Stransky. The All Blacks were favourites heading into the tournament with Jonah Lomu emerging as a powerhouse and rugby’s first real global superstar. However, the Springboks, riding an emotional wave battled to victory behind inspirational captain Francois Pienaar.

The movie ‘Invictus’ is a depiction of this particular South African victory. The iconic image of late president Nelson Mandela handing over the Web Ellis trophy to the victorious Springboks is one of the most enduring images in world cup history.

1999 – Wales hosted the fourth edition with matches also taking place in England, Scotland, Ireland and France. Some more changes were made to the qualifying process with only the top three from the previous edition and the hosts getting automatic qualification.

Perennial favourites, the All Blacks, once again saw their hopes dashed by the French, who pulled off a stunning upset in the semis, in one of the most famous matches in tournament history. In the end, the Wallabies picked up their second title, beating France in the final 35–12.

2003 - Hosted by Australia, the southern nation was in buoyant mood on the back of its team’s win in the previous edition and hopes were high for a third title. The 2003 one was initially supposed to be like the 1989 one and involve New Zealand as well, but disagreements between the two parties meant it was just the Aussies as hosts.

In another of the top matches in tournament history, England stormed to an upset win beating the hosts in the final 20-17, to leave the Wallabies and their fans shocked.

Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson was the star of the tournament for the English with his kicking and he went on to become one of the stars of the game in the future.

2007 – The 2003 arrangement was repeated in ’07, but this time with France being the main hosts and matches also happening in Wales and Scotland. The defending champions once again made the final, but England lost out to the mighty Springboks as they captured their second title, winning 15-6 in the final.

2011 – The tournament returned to New Zealand for the first time since the inaugural edition and in a strange coincidence saw a repeat of the final from 1989, with the All Blacks triumphing once again over France in the finale, 8-7 in a nail-biter.

Trivia

• There have been four different winners of the Rugby World Cup so far – Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa.
• Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have each won the title twice.
• Australia are called the Wallabies, New Zealand the All Blacks and South Africa the Springboks.
• England in 2003 became the first northern hemisphere team to win the world cup
• France have been to the final three times and never won.
• South Africa debuted only at the 1995 edition despite being one of the powerhouses of the game due to their global boycott from sport owing to apartheid.
• The 1995 world cup in South Africa was the first to be held in a single country. All previous editions had been shared across countries.
• New Zealand controversially accused a conspiracy of making their players ill through food poisoning the day before the final in the 1995 edition.
• Prior to the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, the USA was technically the reigning international champion as they had won the gold medal at the 1924 Olympics.
• The name of the trophy handed to the winners is the Web Ellis trophy because as per popular myth, that was the name of the school boy who invented the game.
• The most points ever scored against a team at the world Cup is 145 by New Zealand in a match against Japan in 1995. New Zealand scored 21 tries in that match.
• The widest winning margin in a match is 142, by Australia against Namibia in 2003.
• Eden Park in Auckland (1987 and 2011) and Twickenham Stadium in London (1991 and 2015) have hosted the Rugby World Cup Final twice. Twickenham will hold the record all by itself after it plays host to the 2015 final.
• A defending champion has never retained the trophy (Australia and England made the subsequent finals though, in 2003 and 2007 respectively)