The eleventh Rugby League World Cup was badged the Centenary World Cup, reflecting the fact that 1995 was marked the 100th birthday of the sport. The competition was envisaged as a celebration of rugby league, and the size of the competition was doubled with 5 additional teams qualifying for the tournament. In addition, an Emerging Nations Tournament was held alongside the main event, giving teams that had failed to qualify a chance of silverware.
The tournament had been preceded by doubts and pessimism; many feared that it would produce one-sided-matches that would be unattractive to supporters. The forthcoming Super League war hung over the tournament, with the Australian Rugby League refusing to pick players who had signed for the rival competition.
In the event, the fears proved unfounded, and the cup was acclaimed a great success. Although many early matches did prove as one-sided as feared, fans still flocked to see "exotic" nations such as Fiji, Tonga and South Africa, mainly for the novelty value of such encounters. Large home crowds for the group involving Wales proved particularly encouraging
The final between Australia and England drew a crowd of 66,540 to Wembley Stadium.
The eleventh RugbyLeagueWorldCup was badged the Centenary WorldCup, reflecting the fact that 1995 marked the 100th birthday of the sport.
The competition was envisaged as a celebration of rugbyleague, and the size of the competition was doubled with five additional teams qualifying for the tournament.
The forthcoming Super League war hung over the tournament, with the Australian RugbyLeague refusing to pick players who had signed for the rival competition.
As England's players were driven into town to celebrate their historic WorldCup final success in the early hours of yesterday morning, the team bus stopped at a set of traffic lights.
Rugby union has never sought to be the new rock 'n' roll but in the past 24 hours it has been doing a passable impression.
There has never been a more extraordinary WorldCup final than their extra-time victory over a gallant Australian side on Saturday and the chances of a low-key return to Heathrow in the early hours of tomorrow are somewhere between slight and non-existent.
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