Tales from Twickenham Stadium: Australia 12-6 England, 1991 Rugby World Cup final, 2nd November 1991
Following the success of the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987, the 1991 edition was spread across the Five Nations of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and France.
The sport returning to its spiritual home, the final was held at Twickenham Stadium for the first time, with Australia beating England 12-6.
Infamously changing from a forwards-oriented game plan to a more expansive style of play, England’s starting openside flanker Peter Winterbottom recalls the occasion.
He said: “The overriding memory is probably in the dressing room after the game, seeing so many dejected and emotional people having just lost.
“During the game it was peculiar, because we were churning out the ball, and we just weren’t getting the rub of the green. We were playing some pretty good we were dominating the game, but we just couldn’t get over the get over the line.”
Coming off a Grand Slam win during that year’s Five Nations Championship, England felt they had a chance to take the title.
Winterbottom continued: “In 1991 we were in a position where we felt that if we got things right. We could go to get to the finals and possibly win.
“It was completely different attitude. [England head coach] Geoff Cooke had transformed the whole thinking of the side to being a bunch of losers to being a bunch of winners.”
A solitary try was scored by the Wallabies’ Tony Daly, with the boot of Michael Lynagh adding the conversion and two penalties, overriding the two kicks from England’s Jonathan Webb.
Winterbottom said: “I still remember the Australian try when they pushed over from a lineout. So, sort of snippets of remembering, I suppose. I mean, it was 33 years ago. So quite a long time ago.
Rugby’s move to professionalism
The tournament came in the middle of a period of change for rugby. Having been an exclusively amateur sport for over a century, the 1991 Rugby World Cup edged the sport closer to professionalism.
Winterbottom said: “The whole tournament itself was completely different [to 1987]. I mean, it was such a, such a sort of small gathering down in Australia and New Zealand for the first World Cup.”
Even the concept of a World Cup was hotly debated before 1987, with England’s Rugby Football Union being vehemently against the idea.
Winterbottom said: “The union certainly didn’t particularly want the World Cup [in 1987], so they didn’t really put any resources into it, and we just went down there. We didn’t really have any hope of doing anything in the tournament.
“The local unions, certainly in the north, the Six Nations unions, they knew that a World Cup would eventually turn the game professional. After 1995 obviously, that was the turning point. It took three World Cups to change the game from amateur to professional.
“That’s why they didn’t want it because they didn’t want the game to go professional. They wanted it to stay amateur. They were sort of like Cnut holding the tide back.”
The growth of the Rugby World Cup
A clearly bigger event than what had been held four years prior, Rugby World Cup final crowds went to grow year on year until 2007.
With the 2019 tournament being held in Japan, and 2031 set to venture to the United States, the Rugby World Cup has grown from the hot beds of the sport in the United Kingdom and New Zealand to becoming a truly global event.
The Rugby Football Union invested heavily into the sport’s infrastructure, redeveloping Twickenham Stadium’s North Stand before the tournament, updating the East Stand afterwards.
Winterbottom said of the 1991 tournament: “The crowds generally were so much bigger than in Australia in 1987 and the whole tournament seemed like it was sort of a very professional organisation.
“In ‘87 It was sort of just a group of blokes going down to Australia and New Zealand a few games. I mean, it didn’t really feel special in ‘87 but it certainly felt special in 1991.”
Twickenham Stadium has since been the central venue of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where New Zealand beat Australia in the final, and will host the final of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
