1991 Rugby World Cup
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup (Template:Langx) was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be staged in the northern hemisphere, with England the hosts of the final. Also for the first time, qualifying competitions were introduced as the number of entrants had increased, from 16 nations four years earlier, to 33 countries. The eight quarter-finalists from 1987 qualified automatically with the remaining eight spots contested through qualifiers by 25 countries. This resulted in only one new side qualifying for the tournament, Western Samoa replacing Tonga. The same 16-team pool/knock-out format was used with just minor changes to the points system. South Africa was again not included because of sanctions imposed on the country by the International Rugby Board (IRB), due to the government's apartheid policies.
The pool stages produced a major upset when Western Samoa, who were making their debut in the tournament, defeated the 1987 semi-finalists Wales 16–13 in Cardiff. Along with the other results in the group, this led to the elimination of Wales, who finished third in Pool 3. Also notable in pool play was that Canada finished second in their pool to qualify for the quarter-finals, which remains their best performance in the World Cup. Fiji, as quarter-finalists four years earlier, had expected to occupy that position, but after the upset loss to Canada and a hammering by France, they lost even their final match against the unfancied Romanian team. Earlier, the opening match had pitted the holders New Zealand against the hosts England: New Zealand overturned a narrow half-time deficit to win the match and the pool, both teams qualifying for the quarter-finals with easy victories in their other matches. Scotland beat Ireland to top their pool, again both teams qualifying.
In the quarter-finals, neither Canada nor Western Samoa proved a match for New Zealand or Scotland, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Meanwhile, England knocked out 1987 finalist France in a bruising encounter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Australia pipped Ireland 19–18 in a thrilling match at Lansdowne Road, with a last-gasp try from fly-half Michael Lynagh coming after the Irish took an unexpected 18–15 lead. The semi-finals produced two tight matches: England overcame Scotland 9–6, a late drop goal deciding a tryless match in a torrential downpour at Murrayfield Stadium, and Australia defeated the defending champions New Zealand 16–6 at Lansdowne Road.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The final was played at Twickenham Stadium in London, and saw Australia win 12–6 against England, with a first-half try from prop Tony Daly.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Qualification
Template:Main The following 16 teams, shown by region, qualified for the 1991 Rugby World Cup. Of the 16 teams, eight of those places were automatically filled by quarter-finalists from the 1987 World Cup and did not have to play any qualification matches. 25 nations competed in a qualification process designed to fill the remaining eight spots, bringing the total participation to 33 nations. In the event, there was only one change from the 1987 tournament, with Western Samoa appearing in place of Tonga.
| Africa | Americas | Europe | Oceania/Asia |
|---|---|---|---|
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Venues
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Squads
Referees
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Format
| Pool 1 | Pool 2 | Pool 3 | Pool 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
As in the 1987 Rugby World Cup the 16 nations were divided into four pools of four nations, with each nation playing their other pool opponents once, every nation playing three times during the pool stages. Nations were awarded 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and zero for a loss, the top two nations of every pool advanced to the quarter-finals. The runners-up of each pool faced the winners of a different pool in the quarter-finals. The winners moved on to the semi-finals, with the winners then moving onto the final, and the losers of the semi-finals contesting a third/fourth place play off.
- Pool 1 was played in England
- Pool 2 was played in both Scotland and Ireland, with matches played in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
- Pool 3 was played in Wales
- Pool 4 was played in France
Points system
The points system that was used in the pool stage was which was changed from 1987 was as follows:
- 3 points for a win
- 2 points for a draw
- 1 point for playing
A total of 32 matches (24 in the pool stage and eight in the knock-out stage) were played throughout the tournament over 30 days from 3 October 1991 to 2 November 1991.
Pool stage
Pool 1
| Team<ref name="IRBYearbook2009">Template:Cite book</ref> | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Ru | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 95 | 39 | 9 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 33 | 7 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 57 | 76 | 5 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 24 | 113 | 3 |
Pool 2
| Team<ref name="IRBYearbook2009"/> | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Ru | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 122 | 36 | 9 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 102 | 51 | 7 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 77 | 87 | 5 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 31 | 158 | 3 |
Pool 3
| Team<ref name="IRBYearbook2009"/> | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Ru | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 25 | 9 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 54 | 34 | 7 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 32 | 61 | 5 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 38 | 83 | 3 |
Pool 4
| Team<ref name="IRBYearbook2009"/> | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Ru | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 25 | 9 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 45 | 33 | 7 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 31 | 64 | 5 |
| Template:Ru | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 63 | 3 |
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third-place play-off
Final
Template:Main Template:Rugbybox
Statistics
The tournament's top point scorer was Ireland's Ralph Keyes, who scored 68 points. David Campese and Jean-Baptiste Lafond scored the most tries, six in total.
| Player | Team | Position | Played | Tries | ConvTemplate:Shyersions | PenalTemplate:Shyties | Drop goals | Total points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ralph Keyes | Template:Ru | Fly-half | 4 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 2 | 68 |
| Michael Lynagh | Template:Ru | Fly-half | 6 | 2 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 66 |
| Gavin Hastings | Template:Ru | Fullback | 5 | 1 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 61 |
| Jonathan Webb | Template:Ru | Fullback | 5 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 0 | 56 |
| Grant Fox | Template:Ru | Fly-half | 4 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 44 |
| Didier Camberabero | Template:Ru | Fly-half | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 32 |
| Diego Dominguez | Template:Ru | Fly-half | 3 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 29 |
| Takahiro Hosokawa | Template:Ru | Fullback | 3 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 29 |
| Mathew Vaea | Template:Ru | Scrum-half | 4 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 25 |
| David Campese | Template:Ru | Wing | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Jean-Baptiste Lafond | Template:Ru | Centre | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Broadcasters
The event was broadcast in the United Kingdom by ITV who took over the rights from the BBC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 13 million people in the United Kingdom watched the final.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Australia it was the second and the last (as of the 2023 tournament) Rugby World Cup to be broadcast on ABC television as, from 1995, the commercial networks 7, 9 and 10 would all take over the broadcast rights sometimes in partnership with pay and streaming broadcasters Fox and Stan.Template:Citation needed In New Zealand, it was broadcast by TVNZ.Template:Citation needed In France, it was broadcast by TF1 instead of France's traditional Rugby broadcasters Antenne2.Template:Citation needed In Ireland it was broadcast by RTÉ.Template:Citation needed ITV, TF1 and RTE were the host broadcasters broadcasting the pictures around the world as well to their own countries.Template:Citation needed
References
External links
- Official Rugby World Cup Site
- Full Results and Statistics at ESPN (archived 2020)
- World Cup Referees Template:Webarchive on RugbyRefs.com
Template:1991 Rugby World Cup Template:1991 Rugby World Cup finalists Template:1991 Rugby World Cup venues Template:Rugby Union World Cup Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- 1991 Rugby World Cup
- Rugby World Cup tournaments
- 1991 rugby union tournaments for national teams
- 1991–92 in English rugby union
- 1991–92 in French rugby union
- 1991–92 in Scottish rugby union
- 1991–92 in Irish rugby union
- International rugby union competitions hosted by Ireland
- International rugby union competitions hosted by England
- International rugby union competitions hosted by Wales
- International rugby union competitions hosted by France
- International rugby union competitions hosted by Scotland
- October 1991 sports events in Europe
- November 1991 sports events in Europe