How first World Cup was nearly scrapped
be advanced worldwide. If someone did not do something towards promoting the game, it would eventually curl up and die.’’
On March 21, 1985, the IRB met and held a secret ballot on Shehadie and Littlejohn’s proposal. The details of the vote remain unknown but it is thought that France, Wales and England provided the votes to approve the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.
The vote was just the start. Creating a Rugby World Cup from scratch was a mammoth task, with John KendallCarpenter joining Littlejohn and Shehadie on the organising committee. New Zealand and Australia had the venues, but they needed to raise $10 million. ‘‘We took some awful risks,’’ Littlejohn says. ‘‘The New Zealand union was only worth $7 million in those days. The Australian union did not really have anything much.’’
With 12 months to go, the tournament was still lacking a sponsor. Then Littlejohn got a call saying a Japanese company was interested, boarded the next flight to Tokyo and KDD, a telecommunications business, committed $3 million. ‘‘If it had not been for them, we would have had to cancel, and if we cancelled [the 1987 tournament, then the World Cup] would not have started until this century,’’ Littlejohn says. ‘‘It is fitting that the World Cup is going to Japan because we needed that Japanese support to get it going.’’
Asked how close it was to not going ahead, Littlejohn says: ‘‘It was close, I wouldn’t like to give odds but we knew if we could get it started, it would blossom.’’
And so on May 22, 1987, the first game of the inaugural Rugby World Cup got under way when Italy kicked off against New Zealand.
‘‘Nick and I were at different ends of the grandstand but the moment the Italian player kicked off, he and I looked along this long row of seating and gave each other a thumbs up,’’ Littlejohn says.
The All Blacks went on to win the tournament but, significantly, the event made a small profit and was broadcast all round the world. The Rugby World Cup was here to stay.
Littlejohn admits the Rugby World Cup has grown beyond what he envisaged.
‘‘The game changed when it went professional. Money is king now.’’
In some ways he says he feels like ‘‘Frankenstein’s creator’’, but still feels a tremendous sense of pride at his role. ‘‘I don’t think I could have done anything more important in my rugby life than that,’’ he says. ‘‘It changed the game. We knew it would.’’
Four years later, the next tournament was staged in all of the Five Nations with Scotland hosting a quarterfinal and semifinal.
Littlejohn and Shehadie were in attendance at Murrayfield when they spotted Gordon Masson, chatting to the Princess Royal.
Littlejohn explains what happened next: ‘‘Sir Nick gave him a horsefly bite on his arm. [Masson] let out a little yelp and Nick said’’ ‘Sorry, I just wanted to know if you were still alive’.’’
– The Daily Telegraph