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David Kirk (L) with injured captain Andy Dalton and the Webb Ellis cup in 1987 - Source: Photosport -
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'Rugby is an amateur game'
In my years of following the bouncing ball around the rugby world, a number of different versions have come to my ears about just who or which organisation first came up with the idea of bringing a Rugby World Cup to its realisation. These days, with the success of the event, many people now claim they played a part in the early evolution of what is now rugby's showpiece event.
For many years the International Rugby Board had no inclination to even countenance the idea of a world rugby tournament. In most of the 20th century, the game was comfortable in its amateur status. Indeed in those years when people complained about anything within the realm of the IRB or its major member nations, such ideas of change were often dismissed because it was said, 'rugby is just an amateur game'. Any problems within the game therefore had that easy 'out'.
Nevertheless it can now be seen that there was a long and sometimes bumpy road to the Rugby World Cup finally arriving.
It took the emergence of several plans in the 1980s, by outside sports promoters, which suggested the world of rugby should soon switch to a professional game. That had the old guard declaring that they had to bring the view of the game into sharper focus.
There had been international tournaments in rugby many years
before the epic 1987 arrival of the first Rugby World Cup event in
New Zealand. Some of these have tended to be overlooked by rugby
historians.
An Olympic forerunner
At the Summer Olympic Games rugby union played a role for around 25 years. It is not widely recorded that in 1900 the first Olympic Games international 'tournament' involving rugby was played. At a stretch, some could say this event was, therefore, a forerunner of the Rugby World Cup idea.
In Paris that year, three teams turned up. They were full 15-aside teams. The Moseley Wanderers represented England; from Germany came the Frankfurt 80 Football Club and 'France' was listed as the third team. The selection of the French team probably came from three clubs which were active at the time in the host city of Paris. One of those was Le Racing Club de France, the club of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the Modern Olympic Games. The Baron was a rugby man, rising to be a top referee. The Father of the modern Olympic movement controlled the final of 'Le Championnnat de France' (The French Championship) in Paris in 1892.
It also has to be recorded that before 1900 the forerunner of what was to become the 'Four (and later Five and Six) Nations championships were played. The first recorded idea of one team from England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales 'winning' an annual tournament came in 1883. In truth these were merely the annual games between the four 'home' unions playing amongst themselves and spread over a whole season.
In the first game of Olympic rugby in Paris in 1900 France beat Germany by 27-17. The English team could not cross the English Channel in time, and so forfeited their game to Germany. Indeed the English barely made the final against France, only arriving by the cross-channel night ferry only at 6am on match day. France won the game 27-8.
The second place in the tournament was awarded to the Germans by virtue of their better performance against the French.
Those two completed games were modest starts towards the playing of full international rugby tournaments - but it was a start.
In 1904 in St Louis, USA, the sport of rugby was not included in the programme of Olympic events, neither was it in 1906 at the 'unofficial' Olympic Games in Athens.
By 1908 the Olympics were gaining in popularity and rugby was permitted to re-enter the tournament. In the London Olympics of 1908 the first Wallabies test team from Australia was on tour to the United Kingdom and America. While in England the Aussies competed in the 1908 London Olympic Games.
In 1907 the English authorities had given serious consideration to fielding a national team selection for the Olympics. But when 1908 arrived many of the top English players were on tour in New Zealand with an Anglo-Welsh team. The authorities therefore nominated the reigning English country champions, Cornwall, the chance to contest the Olympics.
The Australians were the only other team taking part. They had already beaten Cornwall 18-5 in a tour game. In the Olympic final three weeks later the Australians were even more impressive, winning 32-3. One of the winning Australian players was Danny Carroll who was to feature again in an Olympic rugby event. But more of him in Part 2 of this series.
The Belgian city of Antwerp hosted the 5th Olympic Games in 1912
but they offered no continuing place for rugby on its sporting
calendar. However by 1910, two years after the London Games,
another early attempt at the staging a true international rugby
tournament had crept into rugby's still lillywhite amateur
thinking.
'The international championship'
In 1910 the annual regular international games involving England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, along with new kids France started playing for what the influential newspapers of the time called 'The International Championship.' The title was not in any way an official one; that would never be countenanced as it 'hinted' at being too close to what professional sports proponents might do. The title existed only in the minds of newspaper editors.
In the introduction to Terry Godwin's excellent history entitled 'The International Rugby Championship 1883-1983' the author begins; 'The International Championship was never formally or officially recognised. The annual series of matches between England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were, according to the game's governors, merely traditional contests with no team reward offered for the participants other then the honour of playing for one's country....The International Championship (title) was practically meaningless....The publishing of results and making an allocation of points for winning and so forth, was left to those who write about the game.'
Therefore for over 100 years it was solely the domain of the sports writers of the major British newspapers who perpetuated the 'International Championship' idea. (The nickname 'Five Nations championship' was also used by 1910.)
It wasn't until 1993 that an official trophy was first presented by the Home Unions organising committee to each season's winning team. The nation of Italy was added to the tournament in 2000 to make it 'The Six Nations Championship.'
These modest championship beginnings were played with seemingly no idea that they were the fore-runner of something bigger. However those first Olympic Games and 'International' tournaments were actually the first part of the lead up to what is so familiar to rugby followers these days.
With the arrival of World War I, international rugby was still more than 80 years from staging its first World Cup event.
Coming Up in the next few weeks:
Part 2: Rugby comes back to the Olympic Games after a 12-year gap; the forgotten Olympic rugby tournament of 1936; the expansion ideas of the 50s; and pressure mounts.
Part 3: New Zealand's role in the RWCup idea; who first put pressure on the IRB? And at last the Rugby World Cup arrives.
What do you think? Have your say on the messageboard below.
Read opinion pieces 100 days out from the Rugby World
Cup, written by our RWC experts.
Martin Devlin: RWC - Did you know?
Jeff Wilson: 100 days until the party
Buck Shelford: Stop the World Cup bashing
Andrew Saville: Lessons learnt from 2007
Add a Comment:
Post new commentiankiwinz said on 2011-06-08 @ 05:50 NZDT: Report abusive post
Living in the UK but looking forward to the RWC. Not sure if the All Blacks will win but what an opportunity to promote NZ and banish some of the dark memories of the ChCh earthquake and Pike River mining disaster.
african said on 2011-06-03 @ 12:57 NZDT: Report abusive post
Actually GoldEarth, I'm an Early Childhood Teacher. I break my back every day trying to make sure the youth of tomorrow are intelligent and capable enough to clean up the idiotic and greedy decisions of the baby boomers. The World Cup is another example of this. And Finlaay, if you actually look at the numbers, the financial benefits of the World Cup are short term. A couple of months afterwards and you won't have even noticed it's happened.
london leo said on 2011-06-02 @ 12:58 NZDT: Report abusive post
I can't believe that some people are like winging pomms. I'm a kiwi in London working, and I will be wearing my All Black Jersey with pride. Didn't we loose some of world cup a few years ago? All because some stadiums wanted to keep there own advertising? Can't remember 100% if anyone can enlighten me? but everyone moaned about loosing the games also! (BRING BACK BUCK!)
Chris I said on 2011-06-01 @ 17:05 NZDT: Report abusive post
Martin - for a trainspotter of your elk it's surprising your facts on the tries scored in finals is wrong. According to you only 8 in total and 5 since 1991. Therefore only 3 in the 87 final if my maths is correct. 3 for the All Blacks maybe but France did manage a late consolation try to Berbizier.
Cann River Bob said on 2011-06-01 @ 15:47 NZDT: Report abusive post
I agree with your comments Andrew. This year we will almost certainly have the Number 13 playing who should clearly have played in 2007 - Conrad Smith - and with him comes that defensive package and work ethic that invariably identifies WC winning sides. Unless the selectors go nuts again my money is firmly on the AB's.