The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the first ever tournament with New Zealand hosting seventeen pool stage matches, two quarter-finals and the final with Australia being the junior partner hosting seven pool matches, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the third place play-off. Satellite TV links were not well developed in the region at the time which meant European audiences were unable to see any of the games "live" on TV. The event was won for the very first time by co-hosts New Zealand who were seen at the time as the strong favourites.
Seven of the 16 places were automatically filled by the International Rugby Football Board members—New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France—with South Africa unable to compete because of the international sports boycott due to apartheid. There was no qualification process to fill the remaining nine spots. Instead invitations were sent out to Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Canada, Romania, Tonga, Japan, Zimbabwe and the United States. This left Western Samoa controversially excluded, despite their better playing standard than some of the teams invited. The USSR were to be invited but they refused the invitation on political grounds, allegedly due to the continued IRFB membership of South Africa.
On the whole the tournament witnessed fairly one-sided matches, the seven traditional IRFB members proved too strong for the other teams. Half of the 24 matches across the four pools saw one team score 40 or more points. Despite this only the ‘most points by an individual’ statistic is recorded against this tournament. New Zealand won the final against France at Eden Park in Auckland 29–9. The New Zealand team was captained by David Kirk, substituting for the injured Andy Dalton, and included such rugby greats as Sean Fitzpatrick, John Kirwan, Grant Fox and Michael Jones. The tournament was seen as a major success and proved that the event was here to stay and also led to many countries joining the International Rugby Football Board which in turn led the IRFB to become the true authority for the running of international rugby union.
Read more about 1987 Rugby World Cup: Participating Nations, Pools and Format, Knock-out Stage
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