Eyes of the rugby world were on capital for global contest
BACK in October 1999, the spotlight of the rugby world was on Cardiff, when Wales hosted the Rugby World Cup, with Robert Howley’s Wales eventually losing to Australia in the last eight on a pitch that resembled Ely Racecourse on a wet weekend after a round of Sunday League football matches.
The truth was though, it was arguably the poorest world cup of the lot, spread out as it was between Cardiff, London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Paris, meaning that in Wales itself there was little sense of tournament fever.
The lasting legacy was the showpiece Millennium Stadium, which has become a recognisable landmark throughout the sporting world, even if it did saddle the WRU with a debt that weighed approximately the same as the structure itself. The stadium has gone on to host FA cup finals, football internationals, pop concerts and even cricket.
However, how can we forget Neil Jenkins, the world record points scorer?
A simple conversion in the 1999 World Cup group game against Samoa allowed Jenkins to beat Michael Lynagh’s world points scoring record, and the Millennium Stadium crowd to salute the Ginger Monster with a standing ovation. Jenkins went on to score 1049 points from 87 caps in an often struggling Welsh side before his retirement in 2003, getting through about two tons of sand in the process. It is a record that looked safer as Jonny Wilkinson started to spend more often than not injured!
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