HISTORY OF RUGBY (Chapter 6)

1948–86
In 1948 the worth of a drop goal was reduced from 4 points to 3 points.
In 1949, the Australian Rugby Union was formed and took over the administration of the game in Australia from the New South Wales Rugby Union.
Long after William Webb Ellis had become engraved as a legend in the history of rugby union, his grave was finally located in October 1959.
In 1971 Scotland appointed Bill Dickinson as their head coach, after years of avoidance, as it was their belief that rugby should remain an amateur sport. The 1971 Springbok tour to Australia was famous for its political protests against South Africa's apartheid system. The 1970s were a golden era for Wales with the team capturing five Five Nations titles and dominating the Lions selections throughout the decade. In the middle of the decade, after overseeing the rise in popularity of rugby union in the United States, members bodies met in Chicago in 1975 and formed the United States of America Rugby Football Union, today known as USA Rugby.
The 1981 Springbok Tour to New Zealand was also marked by political protests and is still referred to by New Zealanders as The Tour. The tour divided New Zealand society and rugby lost some of its prestige, which was not restored until New Zealand won the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup. In 1983, the WRFU (Women's Rugby Football Union) was formed, with 12 inaugural clubs, the body being responsible for women's rugby in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In 1984 the Wallabies completed their first grand slam, defeating all four home nations, and announcing their emergence as a power in world rugby.

The Rugby World Cup
The first Rugby World Cup was played in 1987. New Zealand hosted the tournament, with some games, including both semi-finals, being played in Australia. The All Blacks defeated France in the final to record their only World Cup success.
In 1991, England hosted the second tournament, losing to Australia in the final.
The World Cup of 1995 proved to be a turning point for the game. The competition was held in South Africa, newly readmitted from international exile. Rugby's first superstar emerged when giant wing Jonah Lomu scored four tries for the All Blacks against England. South Africa, who had not been allowed to compete in the first two tournaments, won the final, beating the All Blacks 15-12, the winning score coming from a drop-goal by Joel Stransky. South African President Nelson Mandela, dressed in a Springbok jersey (long a symbol of apartheid) bearing the name and number (6) of South Africa's captain Francois Pienaar, handed him the William Webb Ellis Trophy.
The 1999 Rugby World Cup was held in Wales and was won by Australia, who defeated France in the final after the latter had come from behind to record a shock win against tournament favourites, the All Blacks, at the semi-final stage.
In 2003, Australia hosted the tournament and reached the final for the third time. In a closely-fought game, which went into extra time, Australia narrowly lost to England, thanks to a last-minute drop goal by Jonny Wilkinson.
Though France was the host nation for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, several games were played in Edinburgh and Cardiff, and France found itself playing its quarter-final in Wales, against the All Blacks, who had started the tournament as odds-on favourites. In a repeat of 1999, France gained a shock win, consigning the favourites to their worst result in World Cup history. France went on to lose against England at the semi-final stage. England, in turn, lost in the final to the Springboks, who equalled Australia's record of two World Cup wins. The breakthrough team in that competition was Argentina, which had previously been viewed as a strong team on an international scale, but perhaps not quite to the level of the traditional world powers. The Pumas began their coming-out party with a narrow win over France in the opener, and also defeated Ireland to finish atop their pool. They would lose in the semifinals to South Africa, but rebounded with a comprehensive win over France in the third-place game. This result led to calls to include the Pumas in one of the major hemispheric national team competitions (the Six Nations or Tri Nations); ultimately, it was decided that the Pumas would be steered toward a future place in the Tri Nations.


The professional era
On 26 August 1995 the International Rugby Board declared rugby union an "open" game and thus removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. It did this because of a committee conclusion that to do so was the only way to end the hypocrisy of shamateurism and to keep control of rugby union. The threat to rugby union was especially large in countries where rugby league had a significant following. In particular, the Australian Super League competition was threatening to entice players to rugby league from rugby union (which was still amateur) with large salaries.
SANZAR was formed in 1995 by the New Zealand, Australian and South African Rugby Unions to try to counter the Super League threat.[12] SANZAR proposed a provincial competition with teams from all three countries; this competition became the Super 12 and later the Super 14. Their proposals also included an annual competition between each country's Test teams, the Tri Nations Series. They were eventually able to get backing for the competition from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, with a contract totaling $550 million (US) for ten years of exclusive TV and radio broadcasting rights. The deal was signed during the 1995 Rugby World Cup and revealed at a press conference on the eve of World Cup final.
SANZAR's proposals were however under serious threat from a Sydney-based group called the World Rugby Competition (WRC). WRC was formed by lawyer Geoff Levy and former Wallaby Ross Turnbull; both wanted a professional worldwide rugby competition funded by Kerry Packer.At one point the WRC had a majority of the All Blacks and Wallaby teams signed up to their competition. In addition to this the Springboks had signed the WRC contracts but had decided not to hand them over. With the three national Unions struggling to sign up their test players, the WRC hit problems when the South African players, recently crowned World Champions, decided not to hand over the WRC contracts and signed up with the South African Rugby Union:the players had been told they would never play for their country again if they committed to WRC.Most of the All Blacks then followed their Springbok counterparts by signing with their Union. The Australians, realising that without the New Zealanders and South Africans WRC's proposal could not succeed, relented and signed for the Australian Rugby Union.
The Heineken Cup was formed in 1995 as a competition for 12 European clubs. Today the competition includes teams from England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The century-old competition for the top European rugby nations became the Six Nations Championship in 2000 with the addition of Italy.
The key benefit for rugby union was that professionalism would eliminate the constant defection of union players who were attracted to the money of rugby league. The rugby union authorities of the time also hoped that as players could now play in either code, in the long term most of the sponsorship and interest would gravitate away from league to the more international game of union. However, rugby union has not managed to lure away more than a handful of elite players from rugby league, as the two codes have become quite different over the decades of separation in both culture and in aspects of play. The preferred body type and skill sets of players differ, especially in the play of the forwards. With access to players of different types, some more suited to one code and some to the other, some English rugby union clubs such as Harlequins have even formed rugby league teams which play in the premier rugby league competitions. In some countries rugby union's administration and structure have not developed along with its professionalism. In Australia the constant flow of rugby union juniors to rugby league clubs has slowed, but Australian rugby union has failed to successfully promote a club or franchise league below the elite level. With professional club games every weekend, Australian rugby league has maintained its dominance.
The many smaller unions across the globe have struggled (both financially and in playing terms) to compete with the major nations since the start of the open era. In England whilst some teams flourished in the professional era others such as Richmond, Wakefield, Orrell, Waterloo and London Scottish found the going much harder and have either folded or dropped down the leagues.
Alterations to the laws of rugby union were trialled by students of Stellenbosch University in South Africa in 2006, and have been adopted in competitions in Scotland and Australia since 2007, though only a few of the rules have been universally adopted. The law variations are an attempt to make rugby union easier to understand by referees, fans and players, but the laws are controversial and are far from being endorsed by all members of these groups

Scoring
The scoring system used in rugby has changed many times over the years. In the original games scoring a "touch down" allowed the team to "try" a kick at goal. This is the derivation of the word "try" to describe a touch down in Rugby Union. Prior to 1890 each of the Home Unions had their own point scoring systems. A try scored in Scotland was worth 2 points whilst a try scored in England was worth 1 point. One of the first tasks undertaken by the International Rugby Football Board, formed in 1890, was to introduce a standard point scoring system. One point was awarded for a try, two points for a successful kick at goal after scoring a try (a conversion) and three points for a dropped goal or for a penalty goal. Most of the changes have been to increase the value of tries compared to goals (conversions, penalties, dropped-goals, and goals from mark) in order to promote positive, attacking play.

Timeline of the foundation of national rugby unions
The first national rugby union was the Rugby Football Union, founded in England in 1871. This was followed over the next decade by the Scottish, Irish and Welsh Rugby Unions. In Australia, the Southern Rugby Union (later the New South Wales Rugby Union) and the Northern Rugby Union (later the Queensland Rugby Union) were formed in 1874 and 1883 respectively, before eventually helping form the Australian Rugby Union in 1949. Both South Africa and New Zealand formed their Unions before the end of the 19th century. The white South African Rugby Board merged with the non-racial South African Rugby Union in 1992 following the fall of apartheid. The other traditional rugby power, France, formed the French Rugby Federation in 1919.