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The Rugby World Cup - The Best Ever?

This year one of the biggest sporting events in recent years took place in Australia , this was of course, the rugby world cup. It is ranked as the third most popular sporting event behind the Olympics and the football world cup despite there only being a very short history, it is played every four years and the tournament began in 1987.

Twenty nations took part in this prestigious event and they were split into four pools of five countries, these were;

Pool A - Australia, Argentina, Ireland, Romania + Namibia

Pool B – France , Fiji , Scotland , Japan + USA

Pool C – New Zealand , Wales , Italy , Tonga + Canada

Pool D – England , South Africa , Uruguay , Georgia + Samoa

This years odds on favourite was New Zealand despite the English team being ranked number 1 in the world at the time of the world cup group stages. This time round Australia had the honour of hosting the tournament. Australia has a very proud and successful rugby history including their world cup final win over France in 1999. Going into the tournament they were the reigning world champions.

The opening game took place in the Telstra stadium, Sydney. The opening ceremony lasted just over one hour and took place prior to the opening game between the host nation, Australia and the Argentineans. It represented all the nations taking part with the official rugby anthem, the world in union, delivered by forty choir singers. Each country has two representatives of the world cup choir. At each game the corresponding representatives of the two nations taking part in the current game sing the national anthems for their own country. The opening ceremony was breath-taking but it just a warm up for some of the excitement experience in this tournament.

After gruelling group stages the elite eight stepped up a gear and took part in the Quarter finals, these were; France, Ireland, Wales, England, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and South Africa. After such classic match ups as these and an unforgettable couple of semi-finals it was to be England against Australia that would clash on the rain soaked tundra of the Sydney stadium.

The giants of world rugby collided in front of a world record crowd of 83,000 – half of which were English; this is a phenomenal support for a country on the other side of the world! This world cup final was to be one of the most exhilarating games of rugby union to knowledge. England got off to a shaky start being the first team to concede a try, however, this only spurred them on to score fourteen un-answered points.

The second half provided an exasperating game in which Elton Flatley kicked Australia back into contention with a last minute pressure penalty to tie it up. So with tensions building it headed into extra time, which ended in a last minute, drop goal from England’s talisman, Jonny Wilkinson.

The final score was 20-17 with the English celebrations lasting long into the night. The victory was made sweeter with England being the first northern hemisphere team to have their name en graved on the trophy.

I must admit that I have I haven’t lived long enough comment on all the world cups but to my knowledge it has surpass the others in its support for the weaker nations –for example, the game between Romania and Namibia had a slight edge. If you were born on an even month your supported one team if you were born on an odd month you supported the other. It was because of this that almost every game was sold out!

I believe that each world cup has got better and better and I hope that everyone can get together and enjoy the magic of the rugby world cup in years to come.

So, was it the best rugby world cup ever………. DEFIANTLY!!!

Interesting facts- 1) Jonny Wilkinson finished top point scorer

2) Dougie Howlett finished top try scorer

3) Both legends of the game, Keith wood and Fabien Galthie retired from the international stage.

4) England veteran, Jason Leonard broke the record for most internationally capped test player.