June 20, 1987: The 1st Rugby World Cup Final

Captain David Kirk with the Webb Ellis Cup

June 20, 1987: The Final of the 1st Rugby World Cup is held. New Zealand, co-hosts with Australia, defeat France, 29-9.

Legend has it that, in 1823, at Rugby School in Warwickshire, a England, a 16-year-old student named William Webb Ellis got frustrated during a football match, whose rules forbid carrying the ball, so he picked the ball up, and ran toward the other team's goal, and through the sticks (no goal nets in those days), and put the ball on the ground, thus inventing the touchdown. The other players decided they liked the idea, and rewrote the rules to create "the Rugby game." In his memory, the trophy for the Rugby World Cup is named the William Webb Ellis Cup.

This sounds a lot like the origin story for baseball, supposedly invented by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York in 1839. Well, the parallels continue: Like General Doubleday, Webb Ellis was a real person, and became a distinguished gentleman. He was from Salford, outside Manchester. He did attend and graduate from the Rugby School, graduated from Oxford University, became a good cricket player, was ordained as a minister, and became one of the most honored Protestant clergymen of the Victorian age.

But, again like Doubleday, he never claimed to have invented the sport in question, nor there is any official record of him having played it. And, again like Doubleday, he was conveniently dead and unable to deny the story once it came out: He died in 1872, and the story was first published in 1876.

And, again like baseball, there is no definitive truthful origin story. The ancient Greeks played a football-like game at least as far back as the 4th Century BC. The Chinese also did so at that time. So while the English popularized "football" all over the world, when they say they invented the sport -- either soccer or rugby -- that's, to borrow their own word, bollocks.

There are actually two "codes" of "rugby football," both of which use an oval ball, from which the oblong "prolate spheroid" of "gridiron football" evolved, and both of which prohibit forward passing. The 2 forms split in 1895. 

Rugby union has 15 men on a side, and goalposts; rugby league is 13-a-side, and doesn't have goalposts. Rugby league has a longer and wider pitch than rugby union. A try (touchdown) is 5 points in rugby union, 4 points in rugby league, followed in both by an attempt for a 2-point conversion. Both sports have a position called a hooker, which may seem funny to us. Rugby league is said to be simpler and quicker.

In each case, matches are 80 minutes, divided into halves. There's also a form of the sport called Rugby sevens, with 7-minute halves. Rugby union features an annual competition, held on weekends every February and March, called the Six Nations: England, Wales, Scotland, a combined Ireland team (players from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), France and Italy. 

It also has a World Cup, held every 4 years, in the year before leap years. Outside the Six Nations, the leading powers are South Africa (the Springboks), Australia (the Wallabies) and New Zealand (the All Blacks, referring to their uniforms, as they are multicultural, with players of Samoan descent often leading them in a fierce-looking pregame haka dance). Argentina are usually the best national team in rugby in the Western Hemisphere.

I don't know why it took until 1987 for a sport as popular worldwide as rugby to have a genuine world championship tournament. There were 16 countries invited to the 1st one. The United States was one of them, but was placed in a "group of death," Pool 1, with Australia, England and Japan. (Traditionally, Japan aren't as good at the sport as Australia and England, but, usually, they're considerably better than the U.S.) The action got underway on May 22. The U.S. beat Japan, 21-18; but got pounded by Australia, 47-12; and blasted by England, 34-6. Japan didn't get out of the Pool, either.

Wales and Ireland advanced from Pool 2, while Canada and the Pacific Island nation of Tonga did not. New Zealand and the Pacific Island nation of Fiji advanced from Pool 3, while Italy and Argentina did not. France and Scotland advanced from Pool 4, while Romania and Zimbabwe did not. So, out of the Six Nations, only Italy did not make the knockout stage.

In the Quarterfinals, New Zealand beat Scotland, 30-3; Australia beat Ireland, 33-15; France beat Fiji, 31-16; and Wales beat England, 16-3. In the Semifinals, France upset Australia, 30-24; while New Zealand overwhelmed Wales, 49-6.

The Final was held on June 20, at Eden Park, New Zealand's largest stadium (attendance was 48,035), in Auckland, the country's largest city. (Its capital city is Wellington, which, like Auckland, is on the country's north island. Christchurch is the largest city on the south island.) The referee was Kerry Fitzgerald, from Australia, which should have made him neutral, although Australia and New Zealand, due to their status as neighbors, are rivals. No one has ever suggested that he officiated this game unfairly.

New Zealand, as traditional, wore all black. (Their soccer teams go the opposite way, and are known as the All Whites.) France's rugby team matched their soccer team, wearing blue shirts, white pants and red socks. It has been suggested that France used up most of their emotion in their Semifinal upset of Australia, and they played a bit too conservatively in the 1st half of the Final, playing mainly for territory and position.

In the 14th minute, Grant Fox scored on a drop kick, giving New Zealand a 3-0 lead, and settling whatever nerves they might have had. Just 3 minutes later, Michael Jones, a flanker of Samoan descent, and considered the best player in the sport at the time, scored a try. The score was 9-0 at halftime.

France got on the board with a penalty early in the 2nd half, but New Zealand still controlled the game. It was 29-3 before Pierre Berbizier scored a try on the last play of the game, and New Zealand won, 29-9.

New Zealand have now won it 3 times, also doing so in 2011 and 2015. South Africa have matched them with 3 wins, in 1995, 2007 and 2019. Australia have won it twice, in 1991 and 1999. England have won it once, in 2003. France have reached 3 Finals, but never won it. The U.S. have never gotten out of the Group Stage, and didn't even qualify for the 1995 edition. The next Rugby World Cup will be held in France, from September 8 to October 28, 2023, and the U.S. have failed to qualify.

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June 20, 1987 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lose to the Boston Red Sox, 9-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Al Nipper pitched a complete game, and Tommy John didn't get out of the 5th inning. Dwight Evans hit a home run for the Sox, Mike Pagliarulo for the Yanks. Don Mattingly and Rickey Henderson didn't play, and Dave Winfield went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. The Phils led 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, but Howard Johnson tied it with a home run. Kevin McReynolds won it with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4.

* The Baltimore Orioles were leading the Detroit Tigers, 9-4 at Memorial Stadium, when a rain delay arrived in the top of the 9th. The game was suspended, and resumed the next night. The Tigers could not complete a comeback, and the Orioles won, 9-5. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4 with a walk. Cal Ripken went 2-for-4 with a walk. The Tigers then won the regularly-scheduled game, 9-3.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Robin Yount went 0-for-4, and Paul Molitor went 0-for-2 with a walk, and drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 10-5 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Mike Scott outpitched Tim Leary.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 10-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 8-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett went 1-for-3 with a home run, 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-6 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson, in his last season, went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and was hit with a pitch.