1991

Host: England/Wales/Ireland/Scotland/France
Final: Australia 12 England 6
Semi-finals: Australia 16 All Blacks 6
England 9 Scotland 6
Top tryscorer: David Campese (Aust)/Jean-Baptiste Lafond (Fra) 6 tries
Top pointscorer: Ralph Keyes (68 points)

The end of the innocence

The World Cup moved to the Northern Hemispere and into a new, truly commercial sphere.

Huge crowds saw several memorable games, especially the good Irish folk of Dublin who were treated to a thrilling quarter-final where their heroes came desperately close to upsetting the confident Wallabies.

AUDIO: Listen to Keith Quinn look back on the 1991 tournament

Wales reached a low ebb in their glorious history when they were beaten by the crash-tackling Samoans at the hallowed Cardiff Arms Park. At that time the Pacific nation had just a few thousand players and was virtually unknown outside the Southern Hemisphere. They were well led by Auckland piano mover 'Peter Fatialofa' and featured such standout forwards Apollo Perellini and Junior Paramore. Centre Frank Bunce made his mark on the world scene and would become an integral part of the All Blacks the following year while Brian Lima, who will play in his fifth world cup in 2007, was a sparkling winger.

The Welsh Dragons lost to Samoa, just got past Argentina but the Cardiff faithful were left disenchanted as the Wallabies thumped them 38-3 and sent the Welsh packing before the quarter-final stage.

This tournament was the beginning of 20 years of hurt for All Black fans and the pattern of off-field mistakes would be repeated, with interest, in 1999 and 2003.
Gruff Cantabarian Alex 'Grizz' Wyllie had guided the New Zealand side through almost three years of unbeaten test rugby but after some lapses in 1990 the NZRFU board saw fit to appoint Auckland mentor John Hart as co-coach. The oddest couple since Asterix and Obelix was doomed to fail and with the glorious benefit of hindsight it is elementary to see where it all went wrong. While both men were fantastic coaches with tremendous pedigree there personalities and outlook were poles apart.

After a tough 18-12 victory to open the competition (where dynamic flanker Michael Jones scored the first try of the tournament, just as he had done in 1987) they failed to convince against unconvincing opposition, stuttering past the USA and Italy before beating surprise packet Canada 29-13 at Lille in the quarter-final. Of the many curious selection decisions in this campaign (including the preference of Mark Carter and Bernie McCahill) surely the strangest was the selection of Otago wing John Timu in the number 15 jersey for the last-eight clash. Timu had never played at fullback in his entire senior career and was caught out on several occasions by the Canadians. This led to Kieran "The colt" Crowley being flown over for the semi-final, but the Taranaki stalwart would prove to be woefully short of match practice.

The Wallabies, in contrast to the New Zealanders, had a much tougher road to the last four. They battled with a dogged Argentinean side, only just managed to subdue Samoa in a try-less 9-3 arm-wrestle before facing off against the host nation in Cardiff. After an emphatic victory, Australia then ventured to Dublin for a quarter- final which become the game of the tournament. The Wallabies snatched victory in the dying moments after one of the most exceptional pieces of captaincy ever seen in world sport.

Wallaby first-five Michael Lynagh played 16 world cup games, scoring 195 points (9 tries; 39 conversions; 36 penalties) but surely this was his finest Cup moment. After Ireland took the lead 19-16 with less than two minutes to go, Lynagh, who was deputising for the injured Nick Farr-Jones, called his team together and calmly and coolly told them exactly what they were going to do. And it unfolded perfectly.

The Australians put the kick-off deep and panicked the Irish into clearing for touch. From the resulting attacking lineout on the 22 Lynagh eschewed the obvious and safe option of a drop goal - which would have levelled the scores - and instead ran the ball. Two rucks later David Campese dotted down in the corner after - yes that man Lynagh - had split the Irish defence.

So to the semi-final. The Bob Dwyer-coached Wallabies were match-hardened and chock-full of self belief and confidence; Their opponents from New Zealand were wracked by internal divisions, beset by coaching confusion and most importantly lacked any tournament momentum.

The match turned on two pieces of David Campese magic but the game was won by the calm authority of Farr-Jones and Lynagh, the midfield defensive wall provided by Tim Horan and Jason Little and a bustling forward pack anchored by Simon Povidein, a very youthful John Eales and Tongan brute Willie Ofahengue.

The other semi-final was tryless but gripping in its own way. Scotland, who had won the Five Nations convincingly in 1990, hosted Calcutta Cup rivals England at Murrayfield. This would be Scotland's best team for a decade, and fullback Gavin Hastings, who had been the lynchpin of the Scottish efforts, missed a fateful kick from in front and England prevailed 9-6 to silence the Scots.

The final, at Twickenham on the second day of November, was full of strange occurrences.

England, after being provoked by Campese via the media during the week, abandoned their successful formula of 10-man rugby and ran the ball at every opportunity. It led to an error-riddled display as they lacked cohesion.

Beanpole lock John Eales, who a year earlier was playing club rugby in Queensland, made a match saving tackle on a runaway Rob Andrew while heavyset prop Tony Daley crabbed over the chalk to score the only try of the game.

As the seconds ticked towards fulltime and the Wallabies muddled with the ball around halfway the tension got too much for the bespectacled Dywer. He bellowed, at the top of his voice, "Kick it to the s**thouse". It is unknown what the Queen and other dignitaries sitting nearby made of this colonial outburst.