The second World Cup took place in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, the first time in the Northern Hemisphere and once again 16 nations took part.
For this tournament the IRB invited all member unions to enter qualifying rounds. The eight 1987 quarterfinalists automatically were guaranteed berths while 32 other nations competed for eight other spots. South Africa was still unable to play in the Cup due to the boycott.
NZ beat England 18-12. England didn’t play well and should have won the game.
Co-hosts Wales came unstuck by losing to Western Samoa and theWelsh comedian and singer Max Boyce famously said afterwards that "it wasn’t even the whole of Samoa".In the quarterfinals Ireland played Australia. Ireland took a shock lead with a try from Gordon Hamilton. It was his first try for Ireland and Lansdowne Road went berserk as there was just 4 minutes left to play. Aus. Then tried a move which they had formulated to expose a weakness they had seen in Irelands defense. Curl 2 loop and it succeeded to break the Irish fans hearts.
England managed to beat France in Paris in another quarter final which was a very physical game. They now had to beat Scotland in the semi-final but just the year before Scotland had taken the grand slam from them. England won by a drop goal after Gavin Hastings missed a conversion kick. To book a place in the final.
Aus vs. New Zealand played in the other semi. Aus won the heart of the local Irish fans. Campese was playing excellently and he eventually became player of the tournament.
In the end Aus knocked out the world champions.It was an Aus vs Eng final. Campese criticized England’s style of play in the press. England changed their style for the final but still couldn’t outwit Australia’s defense. Australia, which had again entered the tournament as favorites, lived up to expectations as it defeated England in the final at Twickenham 12-6.
RUGBY WORLD CUP RESULTS 1991 POOL A POOL B POOL C POOL D New Zealand 18 - 12 England Scotland 47 - 9 Japan Australia 32 - 19 Argentina France 30 - 3 Romania Italy 30 - 9 USA Ireland 55 - 11 Zimbabwe W Samoa 16 - 13 Wales Canada 13 - 3 Fiji New Zealand 46 - 6 USA Ireland 32 - 16 Japan Australia 9 - 3 W Samoa France 33 - 9 Fiji England 36 - 6 Italy Scotland 51 - 12 Zimbabwe Wales 16 - 7 Argentina Canada 19 - 11 Romania England 37 - 9 USA Scotland 24 - 15 Ireland Australia 38 - 3 Wales Romania 17 - 15 Fiji New Zealand 31 - 21 Italy Japan 52 - 8 Zimbabwe W Samoa 35 - 12 Argentina France 19 - 13 Canada
POOL A P W D L F A PTS New Zealand 3 3 0 0 95 39 9 England 3 2 0 1 85 33 7 Italy 3 1 0 2 57 76 5 USA 3 0 0 3 24 113 3
POOL B P W D L F A PTS Scotland 3 3 0 0 122 36 9 Ireland 3 2 0 1 102 51 7 Japan 3 1 0 2 77 87 5 Zimbabwe 3 0 0 3 31 158 3
POOL C P W D L F A PTS Australia 3 3 0 0 79 25 9 Westerm Samoa 3 2 0 1 54 34 7 Wales 3 1 0 2 32 61 5 Argentina 3 1 0 2 38 83 3
POOL D P W D L F A PTS France 3 3 0 0 82 25 9 Canada 3 2 0 1 45 33 7 Romania 3 1 0 2 31 64 5 Fiji 3 0 0 3 27 63 3
QUARTER-FINALS
SEMI-FINALS
3rd PLACE PLAY-OFF
FINAL England 19 - 10 France England 9 - 6 Scotland New Zealand 13 - 6 Scotland AUSTRALIA 12 - 6 ENGLAND Scotland 28 - 6 W Samoa Australia 19 - 18 Ireland Australia 16 - 6 New Zealand New Zealand 29 - 13 Canada Semi-Finals:
England
Webb, Halliday, Carling (c), Guscott, Underwood, Andrew, Hill, Leonard, Moore, Probyn, Ackford, Dooley, Skinner, Teague, Winterbottom
Penalty Goals: Webb (2), Dropped Goal: Andrew
Scotland
AG Hastings, Stanger, S Hastings, Lineen, Tukalo, Chalmers, Armstrong, Sole (c), Allan, Burnell, Gray, Weir, Jeffrey, White, Calder
Penalty Goals: AG Hastings (2)
Australia
Roebuck, Campese, Little, Horan, Egerton, Lynagh, Farr-Jones (c), Daly, Kearns, McKenzie, McCall, Eales, Poidevin, Coker, Ofahengaue
Tries: Campese, Horan, Conversion: Lynagh, Penalty Goals: Lynagh (2)
New Zealand
Crowley, Kirwan, Innes, McCahill, Timu, Fox, Bachop, McDowell, Fitzpatrick, Loe, ID Jones, GW Whetton (c), AJ Whetton, Brooke, Carter
Penalty Goals: Fox (2)Final:
AUSTRALIA 12 (Tony Daly try; Michael Lynagh 2 penalty goals, conversion) bt ENGLAND 6 (Jon Webb 2 penalty goals) at Twickenham. Crowd: 50,000. Lineouts: England 19-15. Penalties: England 15-8. Referee: Derek Bevan (Wales).
Australia: 1. Tony Daly, 2. Phil Kearns, 3. Ewen McKenzie, 4. John Eales, 5. Rod McCall, 6. Willie Ofahengaue, 7. Simon Poidevin, 8. Troy Coker, 9. Nick Farr-Jones (c), 10. Michael Lynagh, 11. David Campese, 12. Tim Horan, 13. Jason Little, 14. Bob Egerton, 15. Marty Roebuck.
England: 1. Jason Leonard, 2. Brian Moore, 3. Jeff Probyn, 4. Paul Ackford, 5. Wade Dooley, 6. Mickey Skinner, 7. Peter Winterbottom, 8. Mike Teague, 9. Richard Hill, 10. Rob Andrew, 11. Rory Underwood, 12. Will Carling (c), 13. Jerry Guscott, 14. Simon Halliday, 15. Jon Webb.
