20 years of frustration, bad luck and poisoning

Despite being consistently ranked the best team in the world, the All Blacks have been unable to win the Rugby World Cup since the inaugural tournament back in 1987. While this year’s team has a very strong chance, New Zealand fans have seen this before only to have their hopes dashed.

20 years ago the rugby world was very different, a tackle could be made without bringing a player to the ground, a try was only worth four points and there had never been a world champion. That changed in 1987 when the first ever Rugby World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand.

Back in the late 80s rugby was not as developed globally as it is today and as a result there were many one-sided games; in fact five of the seven highest scoring games in World Cup history took place at this tournament.

When the tournament came down to the semi final, nobody was really surprised to find the teams left were New Zealand, Australia, Wales and France. The All Blacks demolished the Welsh by 49-6 in one semi final, while France narrowly beat Australia 30-24 in something of an upset.

The final was never close and the All Blacks romped away with a 29-9 victory to claim the William Webb Ellis trophy in front of a rapturous Eden Park crowd in Auckland. Captain David Kirk hoisted the trophy aloft in a moment which would immortalise him to all of New Zealand.

After the success of the initial tournament, it was decided to hold a World Cup  every four years. In 1991 England would play host to rugby’s biggest prize.

It was expected that either New Zealand or Australia would take out the 1991 Cup as both were head and shoulders ahead of every other rugby playing nation. However the way the draw went saw these two teams clash in a semi final in Dublin where the All Blacks were out played and eliminated after a 16-6 loss.

Australia would go on to claim their first World Cup title with a 12-6 win over England. The English would claim this result made them the second best team in the world, conveniently forgetting their pool loss to New Zealand.

In 1995 South Africa, who had only recently been readmitted to international rugby, hosted the first World Cup ever to be played entirely in one country. Once again it was expected that the Southern Hemisphere powers would contest this World Cup, but a determined England team eliminated Australia in the quarter finals.

England would run into a rampant All Blacks team in the semi finals where they were completely unstoppable. Winger Jonah Lomu was in the form of his life, running in four tries including the iconic moment when he ran over English full back Mike Catt.

But it would seem that the All Blacks peaked a week too early as they lost the final to the Springboks 15-12 in extra time. Many of the New Zealanders went into the game suffering from food poisoning and some have suggested that this may have been deliberate.

The 1999 World Cup moved back to the Northern Hemisphere, this time to Wales and the tournament was expanded to 20 teams from 16 which had contested all previous cups. Once more the All Blacks went into the tournament as one of the favourites but once again they came up short.

This time the All Blacks’ demise came at the hands of France by 43-31 in a game which New Zealand appeared to have in the bag. The French were accused of using dirty tactics to win this game, but whatever their tactics, New Zealand simply had no answer in the second half.

France would ultimately lose the final to Australia who became the first nation to lift the World Cup twice.

Of all the losses All Blacks fans have had to endure, the semi final loss to hosts Australia in 2003 was the hardest to stomach. After strong showings in their pool matches and a good win against South Africa in the quarter finals, New Zealand went down 22-10 without ever really firing a shot.

All of the losses New Zealand has suffered in World Cups have lead to coaches being sacked, players being dropped and some claim the 1991 loss brought about a change in government.

This year the All Blacks go into the World Cup as clear favourites, but the New Zealand public has seen this before and after 20 years of frustration are hesitant to embrace their team’s chances, knowing that a poor showing, like in 1991 and 2003, or a fired up opponent, like in 1999, could once again spell disaster.

But after 20 years of bad luck, choking and even poisonings, many believe it is about time for things to go the All Blacks’ way, and the entire nation hopes it will.

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The 20 years of frustration, bad luck and poisoning by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.