The First Rugby League World Cup was surprisingly held in France in 1954. For almost two decades the then President of the French Rugby League, Paul Barriere had lobbied the IRL to hold a competition to officially determine the best rugby league nation. As reward for hosting the inaugural World Cup the winner is today awarded the
Paul Barrière Trophy.
The
inaugural 1954 Rugby League World Cup, played in Paris om Nov 13 was not won by the hosts as Britain too the honors. Australia proudly hosted the second WC three years later with the Kangaroos bringing in a home town victory while the next WC in 1960, was held in England with the hosts winning for the second time. Yet, despite a home nation victory the World Cup suffered from poor crowds due to the live broadcast of games for the first time.
After a disappointing attendances in 1960, the World Cup would not be played for another eight years. The competition had been scheduled to be held in France in 1965, this time with the inclusion of the
South African team. However, after an unsuccessful tour of Australia, the French withdrew, effectively postponing the tournament until 1968, when Australia and New Zealand hosted and the World Cup Final made a return.
The World Cup found more success in the 70s with four tournaments played. The first, the
1972 World Cup where the final was contested between GB and Australia ended 10-all, with the title was awarded to GB by virtue of their superior record in the qualifiers. GB were captained by Welshman
Clive Sullivan who was the first black player to captain any British national sports team. The final
Another three years would pass until the next World Cup in 1960, this time held in England. It would be the second time Great Britain won the competition. Despite a home nation victory the World Cup suffered from poor crowds due to the live broadcast of games for the first time.
1995 was the birth of the modern WC with the competition restructured, returning to the traditional 'host' format with ten teams entering. Unlike previous tournaments where the top two teams in the table playing in the final, a knockout stage was added with a quarter and semi final. New teams competing included
Fiji,
Tonga,
Samoa and South Africa.
The tournament, which was also held to celebrate the centenary of the sport in England, was highly successful with over 250,000 people attending the group stages and over 66,000 people attending the final to see Australia defeat England 16–8.
Following the success of 95’ plans were drawn up to have a World Cup every three years rather than the sporadic staging of the competition in the past. However, the
Super League war and the subsequent re-structuring of rugby league's international governing bodies meant that the proposed 1998 World Cup was postponed.
It wouldn’t be until
2000 when the World Cup returned with an expanded field of sixteen teams . This tournament included a
New Zealand Maori representative team, the only time this team has taken part. However numerous issues including poor organization and blown-out scorelines meant that this tournament was seen as highly unsuccessful with an average attendance just half that of the previous tournament. Due to these problems the competition was put on indefinite hiatus. Australia won the tournament by beating New Zealand 40–12 in the final at
Old Trafford,
Manchester. In the same year, the first
Women's Rugby League World Cup was held with GB falling to the Kiwis.
