Today we welcome our first guest writer ‘Damo’ to rugbydownunder.com. Damo is a rusted on Reds supporter. Even bleeds Red. Been around a while, with a playing career highlights reel was recently discovered in a Brisbane archaeological dig. Rugby motto: “It’s only a bloody game“.
Welcome Damo & our thanks.
Rugby World Cup 1987: So it begins
RWC 1987 in Brief:
When: May/June 1987
The Hosts: New Zealand / Australia
Winners: I forget
Runners Up: Frogs
3rd: Boyos from The Valleys
4th: Best team- robbed.
This first world cup had a troubled genesis. The NH nations wanted nothing to do with it. The campaign to bring the event to reality was led by what became known as the Nick and Dick show – that is ARU President and true giant of the game (Sir) Nick Shehadie and his NZRU counterpart Dick Littlejohn. With professional rugby still more than a decade away these guys had a big concern that commercial interests , a la World Series Cricket, were going to steal the game. Something big was needed. The vote came in Paris in 1985. Nick and Dick’s lobbying succeeded and the Saffas, France and, at the end England and Wales sided with the concept, winning the vote 8-6.
This first version of RWC would see 4 pools of 4 teams. There was no qualification process. Seven IRFB member nations, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Australia and NZ were automatic. Old mate Nelson was still stuck in Pollsmoor Prison, so the Saffas weren’t getting an invite. Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Canada, Romania, Tonga, Japan, Zimbabwe and the United States got the guernseys.
1987 was certainly an interesting year. Yuppies were frantically consuming everything in sight. On the music charts Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes told us we were having the time of our lives, and in the cinema Gordon Gekko made it very clear that ‘greed is good’- so good that the punters sent the share market into a frenzy which would come to a shuddering halt that
October.
Come May we couldn’t care less what was happening in the rest of the world. RWC was here. Three of the 4 pools were played in NZ, as Australia was only able to offer up Ballymore and eek!, Concord Oval as venues (SCG not available due to pre existing advertising issues).
The Wallabies were going to be competitive. Mark Ella had recently retired but we retained to core of the 1984 ‘grand slam‘ squad. Slackie was still the skipper, Nick and Noddy in the halves, Campo was there and the forwards were full of hard men. Poido, Tommy Lawton, Topo, Steve Tuynman and Troy Coker. And, the other Mr Jones was coach.
My recollection was that the overall marketing of the event was fairly low key- kind of, if you knew about it you knew about it.
However, some international big guns had also come to play. France, fresh from a 5 Nations grand slam, included some real legends of the game including Blanco, Philippe Sela, Berbizier, skipper Dubroca and hooker Erbani. The Nearlies, as always, had serious firepower. Points machine Grant Fox and future Rhodes Scholar and business luminary skipper David Kirk in the halves, Sean Fitzpatrick, the Whetton’s, Steve McDowall and a promising newcomer Michael Jones ensured the AB’s would be on or about at the pointy end.
The NH teams had all just come out of domestic seasons, so were ready to play.
The pool game results featured some lopsided score lines. NZ cleaned up Italy 70-6, France over Romania 55-12 and Zim 70-12, SD’s beat Japan 60-7. Wallabies had big wins over Japan and US, and squeezed past the SD’s 19-6.
The QF line up was pretty predictable, with Fiji joining the IRFB teams. Also no surprises in the quarters, suggesting the best sides were moving forward to the semi finals. The AB’s absolutely pantsed Wales 49-6 in the first semi at Ballymore and they were looking ominous. An aside, the game was refereed by the late great Kerry Fitzgerald. Kerry also refereed the final. He tragically passed away just 6 weeks after officiating at the 91 RWC at the age of 43.
Easily the best match of the tournament was the Wallabies v France. The lead changed a number of times and some great tries. Blanco was genius. Highlight links below. Unless you are a Kiwi the final at Eden park was a bit of a disappointment. In the end the AB’s had just too much power and precision for France, who kind of played their final the week before. And like with every RWC IMO, the playoff for 3 and 4 is one of rugby’s great anticlimaxes, with the Wallabies going down to Wales. It didn’t help that David Codey got himself sent off in the early minutes. It was all, however, the start of something special.
Some highlight clips:
1987 Semi Final highlights Wallabies v France
Australia v Wales 3rd v 4th playoff.
1987 RWC Final NZ v France.
