1987 Rugby Union World Cup Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The tournament, for the Webb-Ellis Cup, was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, over a 30 day period between 22 May and 20 June in 1987. New Zealand played host to 21 matches and Australia 11. Of the sixteen nations that contested the competition, seven were members of the IRFB (International Rugby Football Board), These were England, France, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. The other nine were invited in to complete a tournament of sixteen, there was no qualifying for this World Cuo. The Soviet Union was invited but they declined the invitation. South Africa was not invited due to their apartheid policies, which were still in place at the time.

The teams were divided into four pools of four teams. Teams played each team within their pool once (i.e. a round robin of three games in total per team) and were awarded two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. The top two teams in each pool then proceeded to a knockout style finals series, with the second placed team in a pool playing the top placed team in another pool.

New Zealand would dominate the tournament, winning all three of their games in the pool stage by significant margins. That trend continued in the finals. In the quarter-finals they destroyed Scotland 30-3, meted out a similar treatment to Wales in the semi final (49-9) and then easily accounted for France in the final 29-9. Wales received some consolation by defeating Australia 22-21 in the play-off for third and fourth place.