Brief OverviewDuring a game of soccer in 1823, William Webb Ellis, then a 16 year old boy at Rugby School in England, caught the ball and ran with it towards the opponent's goal line. Thus the game of Rugby was born.
184 years on and Rugby nations from around the globe come together every four years to fight for the William Webb Ellis Cup or “Bill” and are crowned as Rugby World Champions.
Attracting world-wide attention and more than three billion television viewers during the 2003 tournament, the IRB Rugby World Cup (RWC) is now one of the world's top three sporting competitions (the Olympics and the World Cup of Soccer being the other two).
How it all began: The IRB held their annual board meeting in March 1985 at the French Railways HQ in Paris. Each member nation had a single vote and the motion was carried six (Australia, England, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Wales) to two (Ireland and Scotland). It would be staged jointly by Australia and New Zealand from the 22nd May to the 20th June 1987. This gave the two host nations about two years to prepare.
Whilst the IRB's Rugby World Cup (RWC) was first staged in New Zealand and Australia in 1987, subsequent tournaments have been held in the United Kingdom and France in 1991, in South Africa, in 1995 and in Wales in 1999. Australia hosted the 2003 tournament.
During the first three RWC's 16 teams contested the final rounds after qualifying matches involving all the other IRB member Unions over a two-year period.
In 1999, the tournament entry was expanded to 20 teams, qualifying through 133 matches worldwide from an original entry of 65 Unions.
Winners of the Cup were, New Zealand (1987), Australia (1991), South Africa (1995),Australia (1999) and England (2003). The 1999 tournament attracted over 1.7 million spectators with a world wide television audience of over 3.1 billion. The gross commercial revenue was approximately Sterling £70 million.
As an interesting anecdote, The first game of every world cup to date has been started by the same whistle. The whistle is nearly 100 years old and bears an inscription saying it was used by Gil Evans in the Test match between New Zealand and England in December 1905, a match the All Blacks won 15-0.
This piece of rugby history is also believed to have been used by Albert E. Freethy in the final of the 1924 Olympics in Paris when the United States beat hosts France 17-13 at the Colombes Stadium - the last time the sport of rugby union featured in the Games.
A year later Freethy blew the whistle to dismiss Cyril Brownlie in the Test between New Zealand and England at Twickenham in January 1925, making him the first player to be sent off in an international match.
The whistle has been housed in the New Zealand Rugby Museum since 16 April 1969 when they held their inaugural function, having been given by Stan Dean, who for many years was the chairman of the NZRFU and manager of the 1924/25 All Blacks.
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