Marvellous highs and devastating lows: looking back at the best Rugby League World Cup finals

With the World Cup final just days away, I thought I’d reflect on some of the key moments and memories of the past ten finals I’ve had the pleasure to watch.

There have been some hard-fought contests, with most games very close-run affairs, and I expect this week’s game will be no different.

1970 – Australia defeat Great Britain 12-7 in Leeds

The most memorable thing about this game is that it was easily the most violent I’d ever seen up to that point, and was more like an 80-minute running battle than a football match There were 14 cautions issued, two players sent off towards the end of the game, and a brawl after the final whistle as the players left the field. Under today’s rules, both sides would have been lucky to finish the game with ten men.

Great Britain were undefeated favourites going into the match but made the mistake of thinking that using rough house tactics via their noted hard men in John Atkinson, Sydney ‘Syd’ Hynes, Dennis Hartley, Cliff Watson and Malcolm Reilly would be enough to lead them to victory. Australia were more than ready for the challenge, with the likes of Paul Sait, Billy Smith, John O’Neill, Bob O’Reilly, Ron Turner, Bobby McCarthy and Ron Costello no shrinking violets, and well and truly up for the battle.

Australian winger Lionel Williamson’s surging try from the halfway line was the game highlight from a football perspective.

1972 – Australia and Great Britain 10-all draw in Lyon

This was another bruising, ill-tempered affair as the Australian forwards led by Arthur Beetson, Bob O’Reilly, Gary Sullivan, Ron Coote and John O’Neill battled for supremacy over their British counterparts in Terry Clawson, George Nicholls, Brian Lockwood and Phil Lowe. The game had a dystopian look about it, as it was played in a huge, concrete stadium in front of only 4,000 odd fans.

There were three footballing highlights; two being tries and the other an incorrectly disallowed try, which probably cost Australia victory. The first was the try scored by Australia’s front row enforcer John O’Neill, who went in virtually untouched after a 20-metre burst down the blind side, and then British winger Clive Sullivan was too fast for the Australians and scored after picking up a loose ball 80 metres from the line.

The Graeme Langlands’ disallowed try was a special moment, as he chased a high kick by halfback Dennis Ward from 30 metres out, and dived to take it on the full over the try line to touch down. The French referee incorrectly ruled that Langlands was in front of the kicker and disallowed the try.

It was 10-all at full time and an extra 10 minutes each way was played with no change to the score. Great Britain was awarded the Cup due to its better preliminary record, having beaten Australia earlier in the series.

This was the last World Cup won by Great Britain (England).

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1977 – Australia defeat Great Britain 13-12 in Sydney

This was a really good, open game of football compared to the two previous slug fests The two teams were very evenly matched, and England can count themselves as unlucky.

Russell Gartner and little John Kolc both scored great individual tries to thrill the home crowd of nearly 25,000, but the turning point for Great Britain came in the first half when English referee Billy Thompson stopped play to award Great Britain a penalty for obstruction, rather than letting play go on with their winger Stuart Wright tearing downfield after intercepting a pass from Mick Cronin.

Just to prove it wasn’t their day, their fullback and noted goal kicker George Fairbairn, who landed over 1,250 career goals, missed a relatively easy penalty late in the game that would have given Great Britain the Cup.

(Photo by Getty Images)

1985/1988 – Australia defeat New Zealand 25-12 in Auckland

Over 47,000 NZ rugby league fans packed into the All Blacks’ spiritual home of Eden Park for the Kiwis’ first World Cup final, and the first rugby league game to be held at the ground since 1919.

The Kiwis went in as favourites but made the classic mistake of thinking that just bringing the biff would be enough to take the prize from what was a relatively inexperienced Australian side. Their key spine players in halves Clayton Friend, Gary Freeman and hooker Wayne Wallace spent far too much time involved in cheap shots and not enough time organising their side, while fullback Gary Mercer had a shocker.

The Australian forwards, led by the Balmain connection of Benny Elias, Wayne Pearce, Paul Sironen and Steve Roach, never took a backward step and laid the foundations for a decisive win, while Gavin Miller put on a masterclass.

The highlights for me, apart from Darryl Eastlake’s excitable commentary, were the two tries scored by rookie half Allan Langer, the first as a result of a rehearsed move involving Wally Lewis and Wayne Pearce, and the second an individual effort where he made the NZ full back Mercer look like a witch’s hat.

1992 – Australia defeat Great Britain 10-6 in London

If you thought the Auckland crowd for the last World Cup final was impressive, think again. The 1992 final drew a crowd of nearly 74,000 to Wembley Stadium, and what they got was a dour game where neither side gave an inch. Each side traded penalty goals in a rugged first half which saw Great Britain ahead 6-4 at the halftime break, and it stayed this way until late in the second half when Kevin Walters replaced an injured Brad Clyde, and put debutant centre Steve Renouf into a gap 25 metres out, and there was no stopping him from there. The other highlight was the toughness of the 20-year-old Brad Fittler, who played on despite suffering a cheekbone fracture in the first half after being on the end of a high shot.

1995 – Australia defeat England 16-8 in London

After defeating Australia in the opening game of the series, England were undefeated heading into the final and looked to have a great chance of winning. Not only did they have the backing of over 66,000 fans they were up against a Kangaroos side weakened as a result of the Australian selectors’ policy of not picking any players who had signed for the upcoming Super League competition.

Australian players of the calibre of Laurie Daley, Bradley Clyde, Darren Lockyer, Allan Langer, Gordon Tallis, Shane Webcke and Andrew Ettingshausen were all left behind.

For highlights, it’s hard to go past fullback Tim Brasher’s covering tackle to put a runaway Martin Offiah into touch in the first half, a second half streaker, and the man of the match performance by a 21-year-old Andrew Johns, who was playing just his fourth international for Australia and alternating between hooker and halfback. Johns had a hand in both of Australia’s tries and kicked four goals. This was his third man of the match award in four games.

2000 – Australia defeat New Zealand 40-12 in Manchester

Considering that the home team, England, had been obliterated by the Kiwis in the semi-final, Cup organisers would have been pretty happy to see 44,000 fans turn up for the decider between two undefeated sides. It was a typical no holds barred battle between these two sides, and with forwards like Gordon Tallis, Shane Webcke, Robbie Kearns, Ruben Wiki, Quentin Pongia and Craig Smith on deck, it was no place for the faint-hearted.

The Kiwis were well in the game and trailed by just six points, but their mounting error count eventually saw them crack, when Wendell Sailor scored two tries in quick succession with around 15 minutes to go.

Sailor’s performance was a real highlight. He was virtually unstoppable, scored two tries, had one disallowed and set up another, and his battle with opposite number Lesley Vainikolo was a beauty.

Special mention needs to be made of the bleached blonde hair sported by both Matt Rogers and Adam MacDougall. Atrocious!

2008 – New Zealand defeat Australia 34-20 in Brisbane

Australia’s strong form in the preliminary games, where they scored 180-16 over four matches, including a 30-6 hammering of NZ in the opening match, had everyone except the Kiwis convinced that Australia was about to win its 10th World Cup.

Australia was up 16-12 by halftime, and everyone expected them to run away with the match in the second half. The Kiwis scored early after the break to take a two-point lead, and then the unthinkable happened, as Australian fullback Billy Slater threw a wild pass after gathering an NZ kick only to see Benji Marshall pick it up and score wide out.

Australia got back within two points following a Greg Inglis try, and then with ten minutes to go NZ were awarded a penalty try following a swinging arm by Australian winger Joel Monaghan on Lance Hohaia, and that was the end of the Aussies.

Two interesting lowlights emerging from this game for me were that Billy Slater was awarded Player of the Tournament prior to the final being played, and prior to “that pass”, and Darren Lockyer was awarded Man of the Match in a losing side. Only in QLD I guess. In a postscript to the game that only Australian coach Ricky Sturt could write, Stuart abused the match officials on the morning after the game and subsequently lost his Australian coaching job.

2013 – Australia defeat New Zealand 34-2 in Manchester

Old Trafford was packed with over 74,000 fans eager to see whether the Kiwis could repeat their 2008 victory or if Australia would reclaim the Cup. Both sides came into the game undefeated, with Australia conceding only four tries on their way to scoring 238 points in their five preliminary games.

Unfortunately for the Kiwis, they were never in the hunt, as Johnathan Thurston, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk dominated proceedings from the opening whistle, and got the Australians playing some expansive football.

Man of the match Thurston provided a precision kick for the opening try to Slater, who redeemed himself on the World Cup final stage by scoring a first-half double. Brett Morris scored two tries after halftime, the second a spectacular runaway effort after backing up a Jarryd Hayne intercept, while the first could just as easily have ended his career as he clattered into the advertising signs just beyond the narrow in-goal area.

Let’s hope they have enough sense to put some padding there for this week’s final.

2017 – Australia defeat England 6-0 in Brisbane

It’s interesting to note that Australia has played Great Britain/England in six of the last ten finals and there hasn’t been much between them on the scoreboard, with only 24 points separating the two. This game was another close one but don’t let the low scoreboard fool you, as both sides played some excellent football in what was a very open game with great attacking football.

In the end, it came down to two big moments. The first, when 5/8 Michael Morgan put Boyd Cordner over for the only try in the 14th minute, and the second, late in the second half, when Australian centre Josh Dugan ankle tapped a runaway Kallum Watkins with an English try looking certain.