Summary
As Wales begin their Rugby World Cup campaign tomorrow, Carolyn Hitt delves into the tournaments of yesterday. Here she asks Gerald Davies how it all started in the first place
THE Rugby World Cup is now the world's third largest sporting event after the Olympics and its soccer counterpart. A mind- boggling four billion television viewers will tune in to the tournament while 2.4 million spectators will fill stadiums from Marseilles to Murrayfield.See the full content of this document
Extract
Steps and Kicks Back in Time
A total of 250 television channels and 2,500 members of the media will be covering the event. Yet when it all began in New Zealand in 1987, the biggest banner strung across Queen Street in downtown Auckland was advertising a local production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado rather than the inaugural world cup.
Arriving in the city to cover rugby's first truly global competition for The Times, Wales legend Gerald Davies decided to test its impact on a cab journey."I remember talking to a taxi driver - who is usually the source of wisdom in any city in the world - and asking him about the world cup."He didn't know anything about it. He was much more concerned with the live broadcast at 1am of the FA Cup Final from Wembley between Spurs and Coventry."The world cup didn't touch him."Davies, who has since written the definitive history of the tournament, recalls the cosy scale of 20 years ago."It would be a village fete to today's Notting Hill Carnival - there's a huge difference betw...See the full content of this document
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