1991 Rugby World Cup Final
| Event | 1991 Rugby World Cup | ||||||
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| Date | 2 November 1991 | ||||||
| Venue | Twickenham Stadium, London | ||||||
| Referee |
Derek Bevan 
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| Attendance | 56,208 | ||||||
The 1991 Rugby World Cup Final was the final match of the 1991 Rugby World Cup, the second edition of the rugby union competition, to decide the world champions. The match was played on the 2 November 1991 at Twickenham Stadium, London, and was contested by the host nation England, and Australia (also known as the Wallabies). Australia won the match 12–6.
England had reached the final by playing an attritional, forward dominated game, but appeared to respond to heavy public criticism from David Campese and rejected this style of play in the final. Jason Leonard later said in his autobiography that the decision to change the tactics was made by Roger Uttley, Geoff Cooke, Will Carling and Rob Andrew. Leonard also said that most of the forwards were unhappy with the decision and they said to the coaches and Carling that they needed to go back to the huge, forward dominating game that had got them to the final and destroyed every other team. They chose to play a more expansive and open game, but failed to master it in the short time they had to practice it. The change in play was an attempt to unsettle the Australians, however, this proved flawed. There were also arguments over the composition of England's back row and back line, following selectoral decisions taken at the semi-final stage which resulted in two men playing out of position. Simon Halliday, nominally a centre, playing on the wing instead of the somewhat fragile Nigel Heslop (who had taken a serious pounding in the quarter-final against France) and the injury-prone Chris Oti, was a selection of necessity which worked well enough to be retained as England's first choice selection for a year afterwards: but the dropping of the No. 8 specialist Dean Richards in order to accommodate both of the two in-form blind-side flankers Mike Teague (who played out of position at #8) and Mick Skinner, who had previously been competing for one position at #6, raised considerable critical comment. Even though Richards had been exposed as badly short of form and fitness during England's summer tour of Australia, and was viewed by the English press as the most culpable in their defeats, he was the specialist in the position, an integral part of England's 1991 Grand Slam, and was back to his best by the autumn: however, Teague had also been Player of the Series for the British Lions on their successful tour of Australia in 1989, albeit playing at #6 with Richards at #8: and Skinner was the man in the best current form of all of them, arguably ahead of Teague for the blind-side flanker position. So the choice of three men in two positions was never going to be an easy one, and the selectors went with the man who had shown the best previous form against the opponents they were facing.
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