1991 Rugby World Cup

1991 Rugby World Cup

4 other names French: Coupe du monde de rugby 1991 Irish: Corn an domhain sa rugbaí 1991 Scottish Gaelic: Cupa na cruinne rugbaidh 1991 Welsh: Cwpan rygbi'r byd 1991
Tournament details
Host nations	England  France  Ireland  Scotland  Wales
Dates	3 October – 2 November (31 days)
No. of nations	16 (33 qualifying)
Final positions
Champions	Australia (1st title)
Runner-up	England
Third place	New Zealand
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Attendance	1,021,827 (31,932 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ralph Keyes (68)
Most tries	Jean-Baptiste Lafond David Campese (6 tries each)
← 1987 1995 →

The 1991 Rugby World Cup (French: Coupe du monde de rugby 1991) 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.^[1] Meanwhile, England knocked out 1987 finalist France in a bruising encounter.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

The final was played at Twickenham Stadium in London, and saw Australia triumph 12–6 against England, with a first-half try from prop Tony Daly.^[5][6]

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
Zimbabwe (Africa)	Argentina (Americas 2)  Canada (Americas 1)  United States (Americas 3)	England  France  Ireland  Italy (Europe 1)  Romania (Europe 2)  Scotland  Wales	Australia  Fiji  New Zealand (1987 Champions)  Western Samoa (Oceania/Asia 1)  Japan (Oceania/Asia 2)

London	Edinburgh	Cardiff	Dublin	Paris
Twickenham Stadium	Murrayfield Stadium	National Stadium	Lansdowne Road	Parc des Princes
Capacity: 75,000	Capacity: 67,800	Capacity: 53,000	Capacity: 49,250	Capacity: 48,712
Toulouse	Grenoble	Villeneuve d'Ascq	Béziers	Leicester
Stade Ernest-Wallon	Stade Lesdiguières	Stadium Lille-Metropole	Stade de la Méditerranée	Welford Road
Capacity: 19,000	Capacity: 18,548*	Capacity: 18,185	Capacity: 18,000	Capacity: 16,815
Brive	Agen	Bayonne	Gloucester	Belfast
Parc Municipal des Sports	Stade Armandie	Stade Jean Dauger	Kingsholm	Ravenhill
Capacity: 16,000	Capacity: 14,000	Capacity: 13,500	Capacity: 12,500	Capacity: 12,300
Llanelli	Pontypool	Pontypridd	Otley
Stradey Park	Pontypool Park	Sardis Road	Cross Green
Capacity: 10,800	Capacity: 8,800	Capacity: 7,200	Capacity: 5,000

Efraim Sklar Kerry Fitzgerald Sandy MacNeill Fred Howard Ed Morrison Lakini Colati René Hourquet Patrick Robin Owen Doyle

Stephen Hilditch Dave Bishop  Keith Lawrence Brian Anderson Jim Fleming Don Reordan Derek Bevan Les Peard

Pool 1	Pool 2	Pool 3	Pool 4
New Zealand  England  Italy  United States	Scotland  Ireland  Japan  Zimbabwe	Australia  Wales  Western Samoa  Argentina	France  Fiji  Canada  Romania

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.

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
New Zealand	3	3	0	0	95	39	6
England	3	2	0	1	85	33	4
Italy	3	1	0	2	57	76	2
United States	3	0	0	3	24	113	0

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Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
Scotland	3	3	0	0	122	36	6
Ireland	3	2	0	1	102	51	4
Japan	3	1	0	2	77	87	2
Zimbabwe	3	0	0	3	31	158	0

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Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
Australia	3	3	0	0	79	25	6
Western Samoa	3	2	0	1	54	34	4
Wales	3	1	0	2	32	61	2
Argentina	3	0	0	3	38	83	0

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Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
France	3	3	0	0	82	25	6
Canada	3	2	0	1	45	33	4
Romania	3	1	0	2	31	64	2
Fiji	3	0	0	3	27	63	0

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	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	19 October – Edinburgh
	Scotland	28
					26 October – Edinburgh
	Western Samoa	6
					Scotland	6
	19 October – Paris
					England	9
	France	10
									2 November – London
	England	19
									England	6
	20 October – Lille
									Australia	12
	New Zealand	29
					27 October – Dublin
	Canada	13
					New Zealand	6
	20 October – Dublin
					Australia	16			Third place
	Australia	19
									30 October – Cardiff
	Ireland	18
									Scotland	6
									New Zealand	13

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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.

Top 10 point scorers

Player	Team	Position	Played	Tries	Conv­ersions	Penal­ties	Drop goals	Total points
Ralph Keyes	Ireland	Fly-half	4	0	7	16	2	68
Michael Lynagh	Australia	Fly-half	6	2	11	12	0	66
Gavin Hastings	Scotland	Fullback	5	1	9	13	0	61
Jonathan Webb	England	Fullback	5	1	5	14	0	56
Grant Fox	New Zealand	Fly-half	4	0	7	10	0	44
Didier Camberabero	France	Fly-half	3	1	5	6	0	32
Diego Dominguez	Italy	Fly-half	3	0	7	5	0	29
Takahiro Hosokawa	Japan	Fullback	3	1	8	2	1	29
Mathew Vaea	Western Samoa	Scrum-half	4	0	5	5	0	25
David Campese	Australia	Wing	6	6	0	0	0	24
Jean-Baptiste Lafond	France	Centre	6	6	0	0	0

The event was broadcast in the United Kingdom by ITV who took over the rights from the BBC.^[9] 13 million people in the United Kingdom watched the final.^[10] 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.^{[citation needed]} In New Zealand, it was broadcast by TVNZ.^{[citation needed]} In France, it was broadcast by TF1 instead of France's traditional Rugby broadcasters Antenne2.^{[citation needed]} In Ireland it was broadcast by RTÉ.^{[citation needed]} ITV, TF1 and RTE were the host broadcasters broadcasting the pictures around the world as well to their own countries.^{[citation needed]}

External videos
Rugby World Cup 1991 Quarter-final France v England on YouTube

• Official Rugby World Cup Site
• Full Results and Statistics at ESPN
• World Cup Referees Archived 1 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine on RugbyRefs.com