Rugby League World Cup

	Rugby League World Cup
Sport	Rugby league
Instituted	1954
Number of teams	10 (Finals)
Country(ies)	International (RLIF)
Holders	New Zealand (2008)
Website	rugbyleagueworldcup.com

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The Rugby League World Cup 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 first tournament was held in France in 1954^[1], making it the first World Cup of either rugby code. The championship has been awarded at various intervals since and is used to determine the best playing nation in the world. The most recent tournament was contested in Australia in 2008 and was won by New Zealand.

In the thirteen tournaments held to date, only three nations have ever won the competition. Australia is by far the most successful World Cup team, having won the tournament nine times. Great Britain has claimed the World Cup on three occasions, and New Zealand once. Since 2000, the RLIF has also organised World Cups for Women, Students and numerous other categories.

[edit] History

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 13 November 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 been 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 split 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.

The 2000 world cup expanded the field further, with 16 teams entering. Blown out score lines 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.

The 2008 winners were New Zealand, who won 34-20 at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Australia on Nov 22, 2008.

[edit] Trophy

The original Rugby League World Cup trophy was commissioned by the French Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII president Paul Barriere at a cost of eight million francs and then donated to the Rugby League International Federation to be used for the inaugural competition in 1954.^[2] 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 its predecessor.

The new cup remained as the tournament's prize until 2000 and while they wanted to re-introduce the original cup, as the competition prize, they were unable to do so as it had been stolen during the 1970 competition^[3].

The original World Cup trophy reappeared during the 2000 Rugby League World Cup after it was found and presented to the victorious Australian team. The trophy featured again during the 2008 World Cup, when it was prominently used as the basis for the competition logo. It is likely this trophy will be retained for the 2013 competition and thereafter.

[edit] Format

The Rugby League World Cup has followed a varied range of formats throughout its history.

Since 1995, groups of teams have been placed in a qualifying pool followed by a finals system. The top teams in each pool qualify into the next round. In 1995, there were 10 teams split into one group of four, and two groups of three. The top two teams progressed in the group of four and the top team progressed from each of the groups of three into the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals progressed to the final.

In 2000, sixteen teams were split into four groups of four. The top two teams from each group progressed to the knockout quarter finals. The winners of the quarter finals played in the semi-final and the winners of the semi-finals progressed to the final.

The 2008 tournament followed a similar format to the 1995 competition. The 10 teams were split into one group of four, and two groups of three. Three teams progressed into the semi-finals in the group of four and the winners of the two groups of three went to a playoff for a position in the semi-final. The winners of the semi-finals progressed to the final.

[edit] Alternative formats

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 played each other and whichever two teams sat atop of the table after the designated matches played 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 current format also allows for the cost of the tournament to be reduced as all of the players are based in Australia.

[edit] Qualification

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 repêchage 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 include England and the original four that entered the World Cup between 1954 and 1992 in Australia, France, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

[edit] Results

[edit] World Cup summaries

Year	Teams	Host	Winner	Final Score	Runner-Up	Final venue	Final crowd
1954	4	France	Great Britain	16 - 12	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	30,368
1957	4	Australia	Australia	-	Great Britain	-	-
1960	4	United Kingdom	Great Britain	-	Australia	-	-
1968	4	Australia New Zealand	Australia	20 - 2	France	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	54,290^[4]
1970	4	United Kingdom	Australia	12 - 7	Great Britain	Headingley, Leeds	18,776
1972	4	France	Great Britain	10 - 10	Australia	Stade de Gerland, Lyon	4,500^[4]
1975	5	Worldwide	Australia	25 - 0	England	Headingley, Leeds	7,727
1977	4	Australia New Zealand	Australia	13 - 12	Great Britain	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	24,457^[4]
1985–1988	5	Worldwide	Australia	25 - 12	New Zealand	Eden Park, Auckland	47,363^[4]
1989–1992	5	Worldwide	Australia	10 - 6	Great Britain	Wembley Stadium, London	73,631^[4]
1995	10	United Kingdom	Australia	16 - 8	England	Wembley Stadium, London	66,540^[4]
2000	16	United Kingdom France	Australia	40 - 12	New Zealand	Old Trafford, Manchester	44,329
2008	10	Australia	New Zealand	34 - 20	Australia	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane	50,599
2013	12	TBA				TBA

[edit] Successful national teams

Australia, France and New Zealand are the only nations who have appeared at every Rugby League World Cup from 1954 to 2008. England and Wales also have been at all, but participated under the banner of Great Britain from the majority of the earlier tournaments.

Up to and including the 2008 tournament only Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain have been crowned World Cup champions with Australia easily the most successful winning nine of the thirteen tournaments but many other nations have performed well in the tournament since its inception over fifty years ago. France have been runners-up on two occasions including the inaugural cup where they were captained by Puig Aubert, New Zealand and England have also finished runners-up on two occasions.

Ireland and Wales have twice made it past the qualifying pool stages. Other nations to have proceeded to the knock-out stages in one tournament are Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa.

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	13	1954	2008	13	Champion, 1957; 1968; 1970; 1975; 1977; 1988; 1992; 1995; 2000
Great Britain	9	1954	1992	6	Champion, 1954; 1960; 1972
New Zealand	13	1954	2008	13	Champion, 2008
France	13	1954	2008	13	Runner-up, 1954; 1968;
England	4	1975	2008	3	Runner-up, 1975; 1995
Wales	3	1975	2000	2	Semi-finalist, 1995; 2000
Fiji	3	1995	2008	3	Semi-finalist, 2008
Ireland	2	2000	2008	2	Quarter-finalist, 2000, 2008
Papua New Guinea	5	1988	2008	5	Quarter-finalist, 2000
Samoa	3	1995	2008	3	Quarter-finalist, 2000
Tonga	3	1995	2008	3	Two wins, 2008
Scotland	2	2000	2008	2	One win, 2008
New Zealand Māori	1	2000	2000	1	One win, 2000
South Africa	2	1995	2000	2	No games won
Cook Islands	1	2000	2000	1	No games won
Lebanon	1	2000	2000	1	No games won
Russia	1	2000	2000	1	No games won

[edit] Awards

The top point scorer for each tournament is recognised with an official award by the Rugby League International Federation. In the début tournament the highest point scorer was the France national rugby league team's Puig Aubert.

[edit] Records and statistics

[edit] Overall Championships

Championships	Nation
9	Australia
3	Great Britain
1	New Zealand

[edit] Overall top pointscorers

Points	Scorers
112	Mick Cronin
108	Michael O'Connor
94	/ George Fairbairn

[edit] Most appearances

Appearances	Individual
25	Kurt Sorenson
17	/ John Atkinson; Bob Fulton
15	Mal Meninga; Michael O'Connor

[edit] World Cup winning captains and coaches

Year	Captain	Coach
1954	Dave Valentine	G Shaw
1957	Dick Poole	Dick Poole
1960	Eric Ashton	William Fallowfield
1968	Johnny Raper	Harry Bath
1970	Ron Coote	Harry Bath
1972	Clive Sullivan	Jim Challinor
1975	Arthur Beetson	Graeme Langlands
1977	Arthur Beetson	Terry Fearnley
1988	Wally Lewis	Don Furner
1992	Mal Meninga	Bob Fulton
1995	Brad Fittler	Bob Fulton
2000	Brad Fittler	Chris Anderson
2008	Nathan Cayless	Stephen Kearney

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Official Rugby League World Cup Website
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 Cup at napit.co.uk
The Sun | Rugby League World Cup 2008

[edit] References

[edit] Inline

^ Folkard, 2003: 337
^ RLIF. "Past Winners: 1954". Rugby League International Federation. http://www.rlwc08.com/about/pastwinners.aspx?article=1954. Retrieved on 2008-10-25.
^ League Freak - Rugby League Mass Ownage - www.leaguefreak.com - Covering The National Rugby League , Rugby Super League, State Of Origin And International Rugby League
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McCann, 2006: 83

[edit] General

Folkard, Claire (2003). Guinness World Records 2003. Bantam Books. ISBN 055358636X, 9780553586367. http://books.google.com/books?id=xT_DXO6kg9MC&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
McCann, Liam (2006). Rugby: Facts, Figures and Fun. AAPPL. ISBN 1904332544, 9781904332541. http://books.google.com/books?id=CDk7MpyX4jUC.

[Folkard03-337-0] Folkard, 2003: 337

[RLIF1-1] RLIF. "Past Winners: 1954". Rugby League International Federation. http://www.rlwc08.com/about/pastwinners.aspx?article=1954. Retrieved on 2008-10-25.

[2] League Freak - Rugby League Mass Ownage - www.leaguefreak.com - Covering The National Rugby League , Rugby Super League, State Of Origin And International Rugby League

[McCann2006-83-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McCann, 2006: 83

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]