Dawn of new age as Captain Kirk’s All Blacks boldly go to world glory
Brendan Gallagher continues his expert and authorative look at the history of Rugby Union
THE first World Cup, in 1987, was a hard born affair with decades of opposition only caving in at the last moment in March 1985 when the IRB finally put it to a vote at an historic board meeting in Paris.
Over the years one or two visionaries popped up occasionally to bravely suggest a global competition. Former Australia international Harold Tolhurst and Manly stalwart Jock Kelleher made themselves unpopular in the 1960s by suggesting that rugby follow football’s lead with a World Cup and irritated those in power to the extent that the IRB circulated a memo to member nations in 1968 reiterating their opposition to any such competition.
The blazers’ attitude, even in the amateur days, is difficult to fathom. Wavell Wakefield was more influential than most and here are his thoughts on the game’s future in Touchdown,a booklet written to celebrate the RFU centenary in 1971.
“There could even be a World Cup for rugby though I for one hope it does not happen. The Rugby Union made it clear that the main object of its World Congress was to show how the game is played, and conducted, in England. That means an amateur game, played for recreation and enjoyment by people who spend the rest of the week at work.
“For amateur rugby players it would introduce a much too demanding complication into their daily lives. If every country approached the game as we do it might be a different matter. But these are days when sport is so often used as a vehicle for political propaganda. Rather than become involved in that kind of thing I would prefer to see our own rugby revert to its time-honoured domestic format with as few commitments outside of the British Isles as possible.”
Such xenophobic views from one so well placed and powerful didn’t auger well for the global game but nonetheless the tide did begin to turn. The manifest success of the early Cricket World Cups – hosted by England in 1975, 1979 and 1983 – excited the sporting public who started asking, reasonably enough, where was Rugby Union’s equivalent? In 1982 the PR man Neil Durden Smith, representing International Sports Marketing (ISM) presented a detailed proposal to the IRB as to how a Rugby World Cup might work but again it did not find favour.
The fact is that a World Cup would, as night follows day, eventually lead to professional rugby. That was the battleground, the fight to be won or lost.
But the sporting landscape was changing. In New Zealand the rugby authorities were getting twitchy at the interest in, and support for, New Zealand’s football team reaching the World Cup finals in 1982. Where was the equivalent outlet for the All Blacks?
Meanwhile in the cut-throat world of Australian sport, David Lord caused a panic with his plans to sign up the world’s top 200 Rugby Union players professionally. He intended to launch a travelling eight nation World Rugby Circuit (WRC) not dissimilar to that which Kerry Packer had used to revolutionise professional cricket, although lacking the backing of such a hard-driving media mogul the project faltered and disappeared.
France, where club rugby was de facto semi-professional already, were interested and in 1984 tabled a formal proposal that a World Cup be held at some future date. The IRB finally buckled and asked Australia and New Zealand to undertake a feasibility study. Dick Littlejohn from New Zealand and Sir Nicholas Shehadie of Australia, looked at a crowded sporting calendar and concluded that the last week of May 1987 and the first three weeks of June – too soon for many on the IRB – was the only practical window in the years ahead. In 1985 they tabled a formal motion to the IRB board.
The politics began. In the strictly non-democratic world of Rugby Union, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa all had two votes on the board while the rest of the world had none. Ironically of those 16 votes, two belonged to South Africa which at that time was banned from playing all international rugby because of their apartheid regime. They were firmly in favour of a World Cup although their votes were temporarily suspended.
So 14 votes to play with and the horse trading continued. Initially France were key, their two votes alongside NZ and Australia would give the concept of a World Cup real legs and the price their wily President Albert Ferrasse extracted from the ANZAC duo was an understanding that teams from the FIRA organisation which he also chaired – the likes of Romania, Russia and Italy – would also receive an invite.
For a while it seemed like the ‘Nos’ still had it. The four Home Unions (eight votes) appeared to be unequivocally against a World Cup and would carry the day 8-6. It was close enough though for the lobbying to continue and Shehadie was convinced that his old rugby playing mate from England, John Kendall Carpenter, was ready to break ranks along with Keith Rowlands from Wales. There was, after all, nothing which said that the two delegates from one nation had to vote the same way although that was the assumption.
That was the situation when the IRB, meeting in Paris on March 21, 1985, decided to take a break from negotiations and went for an afternoon’s river cruise before reconvening to take the final vote that night. Drink was taken, spirits high, the delegates were a little demob happy and when that ‘secret’ vote was finally revealed it had sensationally gone 8-6 in favour of a World Cup.
The 1987 World Cup, rather against the odds, was going to happen and an Englishman, John Kendall Carpenter, was appointed chairman of the organising committee while in 1988 Rowlands became secretary of the IRB.
Crafty Barbarians tour helps New Zealand dominate 1987 World Cup
THE 16 teams who eventually contested this inaugural World Cup did so entirely by invitation. There were, of course, the eight founder members of the IRB, minus the temporarily banned Springboks, and they were joined by Japan, USA, Canada, Tonga, Fiji, Italy, Argentina, Zimbabwe and Romania.
Russia were initially invited but they said ‘Nyet’, citing their disapproval of South Africa’s continuing position of power on the IRB committee despite their ban from playing. Western Samoa were shunned.
As for the tournament it soon became apparent that the decision to stage one of the four pools in Australia along with two of the quarter-finals and another two semi-finals was not a
“The secret vote had sensationally gone 8-6 in favour of a World Cup”
The History of rugby: PART 13 1980s - Inaugural World Cup changes the landscape
NEXT WEEK: WILL CARLING ERA AND RWC1995
success. The visibility of the World Cup in Australia was almost zero while in New Zealand – with the Lion’s share of the pool matches and the final itself – it grew steadily.
The decision of New Zealand to take their pool matches around the country helped that considerably and by the final the crowd at Eden Park had grown from 20,000 for their opening game against Italy to a capacity 48,000.
Could anybody stop New Zealand? Up until a couple of months before the tournament there had seemed a glimmer. New Zealand were all over the place in 1986. They lost a home series to Australia, then, disguised as the New Zealand Cavaliers embarked on a divisive tour of South Africa where they were well beaten anyway and also lost a torrid game to France in Nantes although they did bounce back the next week with a fine win.
But the Kiwis, looking to blood all kinds of talent and organise a quasithree-week training camp, came up with a master-stroke by embarking on a five-match New Zealand Barbarians tour ostensibly to celebrate their 50 anniversary.
Among the Barbarians ranks were Craig Green, Michael Jones, another star Samoan in John Schuster, John Kirwan, the Whetton brothers, Dave Kirk, Steve McDowall, Sean Fitzpatrick, Joe Stanley, Mike Brewer and Steve Bachop. In total nine of the NZ team that started the World Cup final against France three months later were on that NZ Barbarians tour.
Predictably the NZ Barbarians steam-rollered all the opposition. Leicester were beaten 33-3 and a wonder try from Jones is still talked about at Welford Road while there were further victories in Ireland against Wanderers (34-3), Ballymena (29-4) and Cornwall (63-9) before what was expected to be the showpiece game against a strong Cardiff side.
What transpired at the Arms Park was the biggest rout of all, a 12-try 68-16 hammering of Cardiff that left nobody watching in any doubt as to who would win the first World Cup. It was rugby from the Gods.
The only surprise is that full-back Greg Cooper, who was arguably the star of the tour, didn’t make the World Cup team, finding himself usurped by a young Londoner, John Gallagher, who had emigrated to Wellington to become a police officer and suddenly found his feet as a rugby player.
At the World Cup New Zealand continued where the Barbarians left off in Britain. In three pool games – against Italy, Fiji and Argentina – they scored 30 tries and amassed 190 points and although Scotland resisted strongly in the quarter-finals, conceding just two tries in their 30-3 defeat, New Zealand then dismissed Wales in the semi-final, winning 49-6 at Ballymore in Brisbane.
The other semi-final featured the first truly classic World Cup match, between France and Australia in front of a thin 17,768 crowd at the Concord Oval. The live TV pictures, however, were beamed around the world and two of the most naturallygifted and free-flowing of teams laid on an attacking extravaganza with France, playing catch-up, prevailing 30-24 through a last minute try from the heavily bandaged Serge Blanco who seemed on the point of expiring as he plunged over for the decisive score.
For the final the action was initially a little nervy with New Zealand reaching half time 9-0 up following a converted try by Michael Jones and a Grant Fox penalty, but after the break the All Blacks relaxed and put the game beyond doubt with tries by Kirwan and skipper Dave Kirk to herald a convincing 29-9 win.
Kirk went up to receive the trophy with squad captain Andrew Dalton who had missed the tournament through injury and a fine trophy it was although like many things concerned with 1987 it was acquired in a rush. A couple of weeks before the competition started Kendall Carpenter suddenly realised the organising committee didn’t have a trophy so he was dispatched to Garrards, the Crown jewellers in London, to view the stock of available trophies in their vaults.
One especially took his eye – a 1906 silver gilt, gold cover cup made by Carrington & Co based on a design by the famous Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie who was one of top craftsmen in the first half of the 18th century. The asking price was £6000 and RWC were not in a position to haggle.
Going into the 1987 World Cup there was no assumption that the competition would be continued and its future was only assured at the IRB’s annual meeting in March 1988. There the IRB also received a 90 page debrief on the 1987 tournament which recorded a working profit of just over £1m – in 2015 the figure was nearer £150m – and also made the strong recommendation that all future competitions be staged in one country.
Delegates nodded their agreement although needless to say they subsequently voted to hold the 1991 tournament across the four Home Unions and France. There was money to be made in this new tournament. and nobody wanted to miss out.