1995 Rugby World Cup
 |
|
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host nation |
 South Africa
|
| Dates | 25 May – 24 June 1995 |
| No. of nations | 16 (52 qualifying) |
| Final positions | |
Champions 
|
South Africa
|
Runner-up 
|
 New Zealand
|
Third-place 
|
 France
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Top scorer(s) |
Thierry Lacroix (112) |
| Most tries |
Jonah Lomu Marc Ellis (7 tries each) |
|
← 1991
1999 →
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The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country.
The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in South Africa following the end of apartheid. It was also the first World Cup in which South Africa was allowed to compete; the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, now World Rugby) had only readmitted South Africa to international rugby in 1992, following negotiations to end apartheid. The World Cup would also be the last major event of rugby union's amateur era; two months after the tournament, the IRFB opened the sport to professionalism.
In the final, held at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 24 June, South Africa defeated New Zealand 15–12, with Joel Stransky scoring a drop goal in extra time to win the match. Following South Africa's victory, Nelson Mandela, the President of South Africa, wearing a Springboks rugby shirt and cap, presented the Webb Ellis Cup to the South African captain François Pienaar. Mandela and Pienaar's involvement in the World Cup is the subject of the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, its 2009 film adaptation Invictus, and the ESPN TV documentary The 16th Man in 2010.
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