Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament was first held in 1987, when the tournament was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand are the current champions, having defeated Australia in the final of the 2015 tournament in England.

The winners are awarded the William Webb Ellis Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, the Rugby School pupil who — according to a popular legend — invented rugby by picking up the ball during a football game. Four countries have won the trophy; New Zealand have won it three times, two teams have won twice, Australia and South Africa, while England have won it once.

The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. Sixteen teams were invited to participate in the inaugural tournament in 1987, however since 1999 twenty teams have taken part. Japan will host the next event in 2019.

Format

Qualification

Qualifying tournaments were introduced for the second tournament, where eight of the sixteen places were contested in a twenty-four-nation tournament. The inaugural World Cup in 1987, did not involve any qualifying process; instead, the 16 places were automatically filled by seven eligible International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, now World Rugby) member nations, and the rest by invitation.

Women's rugby union

Women's rugby union is a sport identical to the men's game with the same rules, same sized pitch, and same equipment. However, it has a history which is significantly different, due to various social pressures, and the self-image of rugby union in general. As a result, this history has been largely hidden until comparatively recently, although the game is gaining a higher profile thanks to international tournaments and financial investment.

The first 100 years of Women's rugby union 1881–1990

The secretive nature of the early years of women’s sport - and especially rugby union - ensures that we do not really know where it began. Public reaction to women playing contact sports could be contemptuous, or even violent. In 1881, when two teams played a number of exhibition "football" games in Scotland and northern England, several games had to be abandoned due to rioting in or around the grounds.

While most of these games appear to have been played to the new Association Football rules, it is clear from reports in the Liverpool Mercury of 27 June 1881 that at least one of these games, played at the Cattle Market Inn Athletic Grounds, Stanley, Liverpool on the 25th, involved scoring goals following "touchdowns" and may therefore have been played to at least a version of rugby rules.

World Cup

World Cup commonly refers to:

World Cup can also refer to:

Athletics

Badminton

Bandy

Baseball and softball

Basketball

Chess

Cricket

Equestrian

Football

American football

Association football

Rugby World

Rugby World is a monthly rugby union magazine running since October 1960. It is published monthly by IPC Media and edited by Owain Jones who took over from long standing editor Paul Morgan in January 2012. Paul Morgan was long considered a leader in the industry, the magazine is the world's top-selling rugby magazine and has benefited from a worldwide rise in interest in rugby following the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup.

The magazine was initially published on "the third Wednesday of every month" by Longacre Press Limited (also known as Odhams Press which, in 1961, merged with Fleetway Publications and again in 1963 Fleetway merged with a number of other publishers to form IPC Media, though Odhams remained a distinct sub-company until 1968). The magazine was available through INI Sales and Distribution, 161-166 Fleet Street, London E.C.4. The original cost of the magazine was 2 Shillings (equivalent to £2.06 today). By the end of 1962 it was retailing at 2 Shillings 6 pence (written "2/6d", £2.57 today) and currently retails for £4.30 per issue, though various other deals are available by buying subscriptions and / or the electronic version of the magazine.

Women's Rugby World Cup

The Women's Rugby World Cup is the premier international competition in rugby union for women. The tournament is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby. The championships are currently held every four years; the event was most recently held in France in August 2014. World Rugby has chosen to reset the tournament on a new four-year cycle to avoid conflict with the Olympics and Women's World Cup Sevens; the next World Cup will thus be held in 2017 and then every four years thereafter.

The first Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991, and won by the United States, though it and the subsequent 1994 competition were not officially sanctioned by World Rugby, then known as the International Rugby Football Board, at the time - they later received retrospective endorsement in 2009 when the governing body, renamed the International Rugby Board (IRB) in 1997, included the 1991 and 1994 champions in its list of previous winners. It was not until the 1998 tournament held in the Netherlands that the tournament received official IRB backing. The most successful team, with four titles, is New Zealand.