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 1954, when the tournament was hosted by England.

First attempt
The formation of the Rugby World Cup was initially carried about with an formation to incorporate the Five Nations Championship and the Rugby Nations Cup together into a single tournament which would be played during the period where the Five Nations was initially held. After an discussion which was initially rejected by the main five nations (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France) it was decided to have the tournament as an one-off which was to be held in Europe during March 1954. New Zealand who was going to be touring around Europe during that time was invited to make it a nine team competition. The nine teams was separated into three groups of three with the winner of the each group and the best runner up qualifying through to the semi finals.

The semi-finalists of the 1954 edition all though came from the Five Nations Championships with only New Zealand being competitive from the four nations that joined the main five. The other teams only scoring a total of four points while conceding 309 points in the process. After qualifying through to the final, England defeated France in a close match played at Twickenham. Despite the tournament being won by the hosts, attendances for the tournament was lower than expected with the only matches that had crowds above 5,000 being England games. A second edition which was going to be held was later canned.