1987 Rugby World Cup


The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches while Australia hosted 11 matches. The tournament was won by New Zealand, who were the strong favourites and won all their matches comfortably. New Zealand defeated France 29–9 in the final at Eden Park in Auckland. The New Zealand team was captained by David Kirk and included such rugby greats as Sean Fitzpatrick, John Kirwan, Grant Fox and Michael Jones. Wales finished third, and Australia fourth, after conceding crucial tries in the dying seconds of both their semi-final against France and the third-place play-off against Wales.
Seven of the sixteen participating teams were the International Rugby Football Board members – New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France. South Africa was unable to compete because of the [Sporting boycott of South Africa national rugby union team|South Africa during the apartheid era|international sporting boycott due to apartheid]. Invitations were given to Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Canada, Romania, Tonga, Japan, Zimbabwe and the United States. This left Western Samoa controversially excluded, despite their better playing standard than some of the teams invited. The USSR were to be invited but they declined the invitation on political grounds, allegedly due to the continued IRFB membership of South Africa. There was no qualification process for the tournament.
The tournament witnessed a number of one-sided matches, with 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. The tournament was seen as a major success and proved that the event was viable in the long term.
WWW world.rugby/tournament/1

Participating nations

The tournament comprised the seven members of the IRFB, and nine teams invited by the IRFB; there was no qualification process for teams.
IRFB Member NationsInvited Nations

  • South Africa was excluded due to its pro-apartheid policies.
  • Soviet Union were to be invited but declined.

    • Referees

    Pools and format

    • Pool 1 was played in Australia
    • Pool 2 was played with five matches held in New Zealand and one in Australia
    • Pool 3 was played in New Zealand
    • Pool 4 was played in New Zealand
    The inaugural World Cup was contested by 16 nations. There was no qualifying tournament to determine the participants; instead, the 16 nations were invited by the International Rugby Football Board to compete. The simple 16-team pool/knock-out format was used with the teams divided into four pools of four, with each team playing the others in their pool once, for a total of three matches per team in the pool stage. Nations were awarded two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss: teams finishing level on points were separated by tries scored, rather than total points difference The top two nations of every pool advanced to the quarter-finals. The runners-up of each pool faced the winners of a different pool in the quarter-finals. A standard single-elimination tournament followed, with the losers of the semi-finals contesting an additional play-off match to determine third place.
    A total of 32 matches were played in the tournament over 29 days from 22 May to 20 June 1987.

    Pool stage

    Pool 1

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    Pool 2

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    Pool 3

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    Pool 4

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    Knockout stage

    Quarter-finals

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    Semi-finals

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    Statistics

    The tournament's top point scorer was New Zealand's Grant Fox, who scored 126 points. Craig Green and John Kirwan scored the most tries, six in total.
    PlayerTeamPositionPlayedTriesConversionsPenaltiesDrop goalsTotal points
    Grant FoxFly-half6030211126
    Michael LynaghFly-half602012282
    Gavin HastingsFullback43166062
    Didier CamberaberoFly-half54143053
    Jonathan WebbFullback40117043
    Guy LaporteFly-half32113142
    Paul ThorburnFullback60115037
    Mike KiernanCentre3175136
    Severo KoroduaduaFullback4049035
    Hugo PortaFly-half3039033

    Broadcasters

    The event was broadcast in Australia by ABC and by TVNZ in New Zealand as host broadcasters supplying their pictures to broadcasters around the world and in the United Kingdom by the BBC and in Ireland by RTÉ.