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Rugby League World Cup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rugby League World Cup, usually referred to simply as the World Cup by rugby league fans, is an international competition contested by the men's national rugby league teams of the member nations of the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded at various intervals since the first tournament at France in 1954 and is used to determine the best playing nation in the world. The next tournament will be contested in Australia in 2008.
In the twelve tournaments held to date, only two nations have ever won the competition. Australia is by far the most successful World Cup team, having won the tournament nine times, displaying their continual dominance of rugby league internationally. Great Britain are the other nation to have claimed the cup, claiming it on three seperate occasions but will never win the competition again after being split up into the various home nations since 1995.
The most recent World Cup Finals were held between October 28 and November 29, 2000 in Great Britain, where Australia were crowned champions after beating New Zealand in the final at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Since 2000, the RLIF has also organized the Women's Rugby League World Cup held on two occasions to date.
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The Rugby League World Cup was an initiative of the French, who had been campaigning for a Rugby League World Cup since 1935. The idea was further pursued in 1951 in post-war France, with the pioneer of the concept being Paul Barriere, the President of the French Rugby League. In January 1952 the idea gained momentum as Rugby Football League secretary Bill Fallowfield persuaded the Rugby League Council to support the concept. At a meeting held in Blackpool, England, November 1953, the International Board accepted Paul Barrie’s proposal that France should be the nation to host the first World Cup, the inaugural "Rugby World Cup" of either rugby code. The first World Cup was held the following year, with Great Britain defeating France in Paris on November 13 to claim the title.
The World Cup was initially contested by the four Test nations: Australia, Great Britain, France and New Zealand. The teams played each other in a league format. After a final was played between the top two teams in 1954, it was decided that the team that finished first in the league standings would be declared the winner for the second World Cup in Australia in 1957. Australia proved victorious on their home ground.
After the successful 1960 competition, in which Great Britain won the title for the second time, there would be no further World Cup for 8 years. The competition had be scheduled to be held in France in 1965, but after an unsuccessful tour of Australia, the French withdrew. The tournament was next held in 1968, and followed a 2 year cycle until the mid-1970s. The 1972 World Cup final ended in a 10-all draw, and the title was awarded to Great Britain by virtue of their superior record in the qualifiers.
In 1975 the competition underwent its most radical overhaul to date. It was decided to play matches on a home and away basis around the world, instead of in any one host nation. Furthermore, the Great Britain team was spilt into England and Wales. Australia won that tournament, and in 1977 it was decided that Great Britain should once more compete as a single entity. Although the final between Australia and Great Britain was a closely fought affair, public interest in the tournament waned due to the continuing tinkering with the format, and it would not be held again until the mid-1980s.
From 1985 to 1988, each nation played each other a number of times on a home and away basis. At the end of that period Australia met New Zealand at Eden Park. The match was a physical encounter, and Australian captain Wally Lewis played part of the match with a broken arm. The Kangaroos won the competition 25-12. This format was repeated from 1989-1992, and Australia defeated Great Britain 10-6 at Wembley Stadium in front of 72,000 people. This crowd remains a rugby league World Cup record.
In 1995 the competition was once again restructured, and the largest number of teams to date (10) entered. New teams competing included Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and South Africa. The tournament, which was also held to celebrate the centenary of the sport in England, was highly successful with over 250,000 people attending the group stages and over 66,000 people attending the final to see Australia defeat England 16-8 in the final.
The 2000 world cup expanded the field further, with 16 teams entering. Blown out scorelines meant that this tournament was not as successful as the previous one. In the same year, the first women's rugby league world cup was held.
Ten teams are to compete in the next World Cup in Australia in 2008. It has also been announced that the following tournament will be held in Great Britain in 2013[1]
The original Rugby League World Cup trophy was produced and then donated to the Rugby League International Federation by french Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII president Paul Barriere in 1954 to be used for the inaugral competition. This trophy would be used and presented to the winning nation for the next four tournaments until the RLIF decided it would debut a new trophy at the 1970 Cup that was considerably smaller than the original cup and was gold instead of silver like it's predecessor.
The new cup remained as the tournaments prize until 2000 and as while they wanted to re-introduce the original cup as the competition prize were unable to do so after it was thieved during the 1970 competition[2].
The original World Cup trophy made it's re-appearance as a trophy during the 2000 Rugby League World Cup after it was found and then was presented to the victorious Australian team. It is believed the same trophy will be used for both the 2008 and 2013 competitions.
The Rugby League World Cup currently (and has since 1995) used a qualifying pool followed by finals system that is somewhat similar in style to the FIFA World Cup. Each team will be drawn into a pool with another three teams which play each other once and the top two teams of each pool qualify for the Quarter-finals stage of the competition where the remaining rounds become knockout. Teams then progress to the Semi-finals then finally the final where the champion team is awarded with the World Cup.
It has been confirmed that the 2008 World Cup will feature ten teams and is rumoured to have two pool groups of five. The 2013 tournament will reportedly revert back to the system previously seen at the 2000 competition and feature around sixteen teams.
From 1954 until 1972 the World Cup competition had only featured four teams in Australia, Britain, France and New Zealand; because of this a current style format of World Cup would have been impractical and instead the RLIF adopted a league style format where each team would play each other and whichever two teams sat atop of the table after the designated matches would play off in a final and be declared champion. This style was again re-introduced for the 1977 tournament.
For the 1975 tournament a new format was introduced where no single country would hold the world cup but rather each country playing in the tournament would hold all home fixtures in their own country and play away in the country of their opposition. This style of tournament saw a further three countries enter the cup under the league format in England, Papua New Guinea and Wales. With the exception of the 1977 tournament this format was used all the way up until the 1995 competition.
The 1995 World Cup saw the RLIF adopt a qualifying pool and finals system similar in style to the FIFA World Cup that it still uses till this day.
Since the 1995 tournament the majority of teams have had to qualify for the World Cup tournament. Teams from Europe have qualified through the European qualifying groups, Oceania and Pacific Island teams attempt to qualify for the tournament via Pacific qualifying groups and teams from the Atlantic region qualify through the Atlantic qualifying group. The remaining teams attempt to gain entry via the repchange rounds of the World Cup qualifiers.
For the 2008 tournament five teams have been granted automatic entry into the cup and will therefore not have to gain admission through the qualifying stages. These five teams are the original five that entered the World Cup between 1954 and 1992 in Australia, England, France, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
Australia, France and New Zealand are the only nations who have appeared at every Rugby League World Cup from 1954 to 2000. England and Wales also have been at all, but participated under the banner of Great Britain from the majority of the earlier tournaments.
To date only Australia and Great Britain have been crowned World Cup champions with Australia easily the most successful winning nine of the twelve tournaments but many other nations have performed well in the tournament since it's inception over fifty years ago. France have been runners-up on two occasions including the inaugral cup where they were captained by Puig Aubert, New Zealand and England have also finished runners-up on two occasions.
Other nations to make it past the qualifying pool stages include Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Wales in 2000.
The following list, are all the teams that have competed in a World Cup tournament since its inception; the number of times they have appeared; their most recent appearance; consecutive appearances and their highest result:
| Nation | Number of appearances | First appearance | Most recent appearance | Most consecutive cups | Best result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Australia |
12 | 1954 | 2000 | 12 | Champion, 1957; 1968; 1970; 1975;1977; 1988; 1992; 1995; 2000 |
 France |
12 | 1954 | 2000 | 12 | Runner-up, 1954; 1968 |
 New Zealand |
12 | 1954 | 2000 | 12 | Runner-up, 1988; 2000 |
 Great Britain |
9 | 1954 | 1992 | 6 | Champion, 1954; 1960; 1972 |
 Papua New Guinea |
4 | 1988 | 2000 | 4 | Quarter-finalist, 2000 |
 England |
3 | 1975 | 2000 | 2 | Runner-up, 1975; 1995 |
 Wales |
3 | 1975 | 2000 | 2 | Semi-finalist, 2000 |
 Fiji |
2 | 1995 | 2000 | 2 | One win, 1995; 2000 |
 South Africa |
2 | 1995 | 2000 | 2 | No games won |
 Tonga |
2 | 1995 | 2000 | 2 | One win, 2000 |
 Cook Islands |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | No games won |
 Ireland |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | Quarter-finalist, 2000 |
 Lebanon |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | No games won |
| New Zealand Māori |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | One win, 2000 |
 Russia |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | No games won |
 Samoa |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | Quarter-finalist, 2000 |
 Scotland |
1 | 2000 | 2000 | 1 | No games won |
| Western Samoa |
1 | 1995 | 1995 | 1 | One win, 1995 |
The top point scorer for each tournament is recognised with an official award by the Rugby League International Federation. In the debut tournament the highest point scorer was the France national rugby league team's Puig Aubert.
| Points | Scorers |
|---|---|
| 112 | Mick Cronin |
| 108 | Michael O'Connor |
| 94 | / George Fairbairn |
| Apperances | Individual |
|---|---|
| 25 | Kurt Sorenson |
| 17 | / John Atkinson; Bob Fulton |
| 15 | Mal Meninga; Michael O'Connor |
| Year | Captain | Coach | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Dave Valentine | |
|
| 1957 | Richard Poole | Richard Poole | |
| 1960 | Eric Ashton | |
|
| 1968 | Johnny Raper | Harry Bath | |
| 1970 | Graeme Langlands | Harry Bath | |
| 1972 | Clive Sullivan | Jim Challinor | |
| 1975 | Arthur Beetson | Graeme Langlands | |
| 1977 | Greg Veivers | |
|
| 1988 | Wally Lewis | |
|
| 1992 | Mal Meninga | |
|
| 1995 | Brad Fittler | Bob Fulton | |
| 2000 | Gorden Tallis | Chris Anderson | |
- Rugby League International Federation
- RLIF World Rankings
- List of International Rugby League Teams
- Emerging Nations Tournament
- European Cup
- Mediterranean Cup
- Pacific Cup
- Tri-Nations
- Rugby League World Cup - The Road to 2008
- Rugby League World Cup 2008
- BBC website, History (1954-2000) retrieved 2 May, 2006
- "RLIF Meeting", 2008 World Cup European Rugby League Federation, retrieved May 8, 2006
- "Kiwi hangover after the hype", 2013 World Cup retrieved 8 May, 2006
| Rugby League World Cups |
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1954 | 1957 | 1960 | 1968 | 1970 | 1972 | 1975 | 1977 | 1985-1988 | 1989-1992 | 1995 | 2000 | 2008 | 2013 |
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International rugby league
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RLIF | Governing Bodies | World Cup | European Cup | Mediterranean Cup | Pacific Cup | World Club Challenge | World Rankings | Player of the Year | Teams | Hall of Fame | Laws | Women's Rugby League
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