Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is the world's premier Rugby Union competition - a tournament played played every four years between the best international teams and which decides the World Champions and the holders of the Webb Ellis Cup. The competition was first staged in 1987 and has taken place on six subsequent occasions, most recently in 2011.

The most recent tournament took place in New Zealand, with 20 teams competing from 9th September 2011 through to the final, which took place in Eden Park, Auckland on 23rd October 2011. In the final, New Zealand's All Blacks beat France 8 - 7, in a closely fought match, which saw them regain the title for the first time since the inaugural tournament.

Origin[edit]

The decision to establish a Rugby World Cup tournament was made by the International Rugby Football Board (now the IRB) in 1985, following a joint proposal by New Zealand and Australia, with a vote of 6-2 in favour of running such a competition. The opposing votes came from Ireland and Scotland, who feared that the competition would affect the then entirely amatuer status of the game.^[1]

Results[edit]

Year	Main Host	Additional host(s)	Winning team	Runner up	Final score
1987	New Zealand	Australia	New Zealand	France	29 - 9
1991	England	Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France	Australia	England	12 - 6
1995	South Africa	-	South Africa	New Zealand	15 - 12 (aet)
1999	Wales	England, France, Scotland and Ireland	Australia	France	35 - 12
2003	Australia	-	England	Australia	20 - 17 (aet)
2007	France	Wales and Scotland	South Africa	England	15 - 6
2011	New Zealand	-	New Zealand	France	8 - 7

Notes[edit]

↑ [Butler] (03 September 2011). Rugby World Cup: How 1987 changed the face of rugby union (en) (html). guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-09-03.

[1] [Butler] (03 September 2011). Rugby World Cup: How 1987 changed the face of rugby union (en) (html). guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-09-03.

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