1987 Rugby Union World Cup
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The first Rugby Union World Cup took place in New Zealand and Australia in 1987, and was won by New Zealand.
The inaugural Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand and Australia in 1987.
Seven of the 16 places were automatically filled by the IRFB members – New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France – with South Africa unable to compete because of the international sports boycott due to apartheid. There was no qualification process to fill the remaining nine spots. Instead invitations were sent out to Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Canada, Romania, Tonga, Japan, Zimbabwe and the United States.
On the whole the tournament witnessed fairly one-sided matches, the seven IRFB members proving too strong for the other teams. Half of the 24 matches across the four pools saw one team score 40 or more points. It is therefore no surprise that five of the seven highest-scoring Rugby World Cup matches were witnessed during this tournament, a statistic that is echoed in the ‘most points by an individual’ and ‘most tries by a team’ statistics.
New Zealand won the final against France at Eden Park in Auckland by 29 points to 9.
The New Zealand team was captained by Dr David Kirk and included such rugby greats as; Sean Fitzpatrick, John Kirwan, Grant Fox and Michael Jones.
Contents |
Final Rounds
Quarter Finals
Semi Finals
- France 30-24 Australia
- New Zealand 49-6 Wales
Third/Fourth Place Play Off
Final
- New Zealand 29-9 France
See also
| Rugby Union World Cup Tournaments | |||
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