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On May 14, 1987, armed soldiers broke into the Fijian House Of Representatives and ordered the members of parliament to leave the building. The coup was condemned by countries around the world, which refused to recognise the new government.
All contact with Fiji was suspended, and flights to and from the country were cancelled.
Fiji had been one of the 16 countries invited to send a team to participate in the inaugural Rugby World Cup, but with all contact with the country suspended indefinitely, the organisers of the tournament didn’t know if Fiji would be able to take part.
One group of people unaware of the coup was the Fijian rugby squad, who had taken up residence in an army barracks and were training for the tournament, completely unaware of the threat to their involvement.
Eventually, contact was made and they assured the organisers that they would be taking part. Relief – the first Rugby World Cup could take place.
The Rugby World Cup had a long a very difficult gestation period. Rugby had been a strictly amateur sport since its creation and the governing bodies were opposed to any international tournament. They believed that rugby was a pure sport and should only be engaged in for recreation. Results were irrelevant. Any organised competition would be completely at odds with this ethos.
The International Rugby Board (IRB, now World Rugby), even went so far as to make a rule that no discussion of an international rugby tournament could even take place at any meeting.
In the early 1980s they were forced to rethink their policy, due to the threat of a rival rugby competition being set up by an Australian entrepreneur (and now Roar Expert) named David Lord.
It was Lord’s idea to poach the top rugby players and pay them to take part in an international tournament, which would involved eight teams competing in a round-robin style. This was the biggest threat that the game of rugby faced since the Northern Unions broke off from the main body in England in 1895 and set up the game we now know as rugby league.
The IRB realised that it would have to move fast or risk becoming irrelevant, so in 1985 the idea of an international tournament was put to a vote.
Australia and New Zealand were the most keen on the idea, with the European countries generally opposed. But the member countries realised it was in rugby’s best interests to go ahead with the tournament, so they voted in favour.
France were especially keen on having teams from outside the top eight countries competing, so which countries would compete?
Australia and New Zealand were given the honour of hosting the first tournament, as they were most in favour of the idea. France, Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales would be the other main countries competing. Though they had a seat on the IRB, South Africa were unable to compete due to the ban on countries playing against them because of the apartheid regime still being in place. Zimbabwe would take their place as the representative from Africa.
The other countries taking part would be Fiji, Argentina, Romania, Japan, Italy, Tonga and Canada. Russia were also invited to compete but they made too many demands, so their place was taken by the United States. The tournament was to be held in 1987 to avoid competing with the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and the 1988 Summer Olympic Games.
As the opening day of the tournament grew nearer, the organisers realised they had neglected one rather important detail: there was no physical trophy to give to the winning team. Someone was sent to the nearest trophy shop to purchase one.
The trophy was christened the ‘William Webb Ellis Cup’ to commemorate the young English schoolboy who is credited with inventing the game of rugby in 1823.
The 1987 Rugby World Cup changed many facets of the game. For the first time, caps were awarded for playing against teams outside the top eight countries. Rugby players also found that they needed to devote a lot more time to training and preparing if they wanted to compete at the highest level, so they became professional in every sense bar the actual definition – they still weren’t paid. This would soon change.
The Rugby World Cup has brought the game to all four corners of the globe, has seen Argentina take its place as one of the top countries, and has become the third most-watched sporting tournament in the world, after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. The 2003 final was watched by over 4 billion people around the world!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.