1987 Rugby Union World Cup
 |
|
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host nations |
 New Zealand Australia
|
| Dates | 22 May – 20 June 1987 |
| No. of nations | 16 |
| Final positions | |
Champions 
|
New Zealand
|
Runner-up 
|
 France
|
Third-place 
|
 Wales
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Top scorer(s) |
Grant Fox (126) |
| Most tries |
Craig Green John Kirwan (6 tries each) |
|
1991 →
|
|
The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby Union World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the tournament. New Zealand hosted 20 matches — 17 pool stage matches, two quarter-finals and the final. Australia as the junior partner hosted 12 matches — seven pool matches, two quarter-finals and both semi-finals. The event was won by co-hosts New Zealand who were the strong favourites, and won all their matches comfortably. France were losing finalists, and Wales surprise third-place winners: Australia, having been second favourites, finished fourth after conceding crucial tries in the dying seconds of both the semi-final against France and the third-place play-off against Wales.
Sixteen teams competed in the inaugural tournament. Seven of the 16 places were automatically filled by the International Rugby Football Board members—New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France. South Africa was unable to compete because of the international sports boycott due to apartheid. There was no qualification process to fill the remaining nine spots. Instead invitations were sent out to Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Canada, Romania, Tonga, Japan, Zimbabwe and the United States. This left Western Samoa controversially excluded, despite their better playing standard than some of the teams invited. The USSR were to be invited but they refused the invitation on political grounds, allegedly due to the continued IRFB membership of South Africa.
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