New Zealand has long been famed for it’s iconic national rugby team, the All Blacks. It’s appropriate that the upcoming Rugby World Cup is to be staged there. To get you in the mood, here are some fun facts about the Rugby World Cup…
- The inaugural competition was held in 1987, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand
- The 2011 tournament in New Zealand will be the seventh Rugby World Cup
- It will be the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, with around 70,000 visitors from all over the world expected to attend
- -The 2011 Rugby World Cup will take place over seven weekends from the 10 September to the 22 October
- The final, to be held in Auckland, is scheduled for New Zealand’s Labour Day long weekend
- New Zealand’s preparation for the event received an A+ rating from the chairman of the International Rugby Board
- 20 nations will compete in the tournament
- The opening match will be between New Zealand and Tonga
- Since its inception, the first game of every world cup has been kicked off with the same whistle
- The whistle was first used in a 1905 match between England and New Zealand – the All Blacks won 15-0
- The most tries by an individual team in a world cup match was 22, scored by Australia against Namibia in 2003
- The final score in that game was 142-0 – the biggest winning margin ever in a world cup game
- The most tries by a player was 6, scored by Marc Ellis for New Zealand against Japan in 1995
- The most tries by a single player in a tournament was 8, scored by Jonah Lomu for the All Blacks during the 1999 tournament
- Most appearances by a single player: Sean Fitzpatrick of New Zealand made 17 appearances for his country across three tournaments (1987, 1991, 1995)
