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2008 Rugby League World Cup
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The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the 13th staging of the Rugby League World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, but the first since the 2000 event. Taking place between the 25th of October and 22nd of November, it was the fourth time that the tournament has been held in Australia, the first being in 1957. The winner was New Zealand, which defeated Australia 34-20 in the final in one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport.
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Encyclopedia
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the 13th staging of the Rugby League World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, but the first since the 2000 event. Taking place between the 25th of October and 22nd of November, it was the fourth time that the tournament has been held in Australia, the first being in 1957. The winner was New Zealand, which defeated Australia 34-20 in the final in one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport. The tournament featured the best ten teams across the globe which were split into three groups. A total of eighteen matches took place in twelve different venues across four Australian states. The tournament will end a year of celebrations commemorating the centenary of the game in the southern hemisphere and is part of the Festival of World Cups.
The thirteenth Cup was originally scheduled to be held in Australia in 2004, however the lack of international success by the Great Britain and New Zealand after the 2000 World Cup, and the rise of the Tri-Nations tournament, meant that it was delayed for a further four years. The Rugby League International Federation officially announced this tournament on 6 May 2006, with further details on scheduling and dates following on 19 April 2007.
The first match took place in Townsville between England and Papua New Guinea, although the official opening ceremony of the competition occurred before the Australia and New Zealand match the following day in Sydney. The final took place at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Opening Ceremony
On Sunday night, October 27, the Sydney Football Stadium hosted the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. It started with Greg Inglis reciting a speech about "Playing Fair". Following Inglis' speech, there was an Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony to welcome all the athletes and participants. This included a rather large sized Rainbow Serpent which represented the Aboriginal Dreamtime. The last part of the ceremony involved a performance of the Rugby League World Cup Anthem "Hero" by Natalie Bassingthwaighte. A curtain raiser to the Australia vs. New Zealand match included a Indigenous Australian squad playing against a New Zealand Maori squad which featured several prominent NRL players and rising stars including Chris Sandow, Preston Campbell, Sam Thaiday and Carl Webb.
Teams
See also: 2008 Rugby League World Cup squads
Match Officials
|+Referees
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referee= Steve Ganson }}
Group B
Group C
7th Place Playoff
9th Place Playoff
Knockout Stage
Qualifying Final
Semi-Finals
Rugby League World Cup Final
New Zealand defeated hot favourites Australia 34-20 at Suncorp Stadium to win the Rugby League World Cup for the first time. The match started with a confrontational haka, Australia marching forward to meet the Kiwis rather than watch from the ten metre line. New Zealand almost opened the scoring, Benji Marshall just knocking on in the in goal area. Australia then struck with two quick tries to captain Darren Lockyer and David Williams, a mid-week replacement for the injured Brent Tate. Australia almost scored a third time, however Darren Lockyer knocked on over the goal line in similar circumstances to Benji. At this point Australia looked like they could run away with the match. Jeremy Smith then opened the scoring for the Kiwis by busting over right under the goal posts. Four minutes later New Zealand were in again, via an Anthony Laffranchi strip which led to a Jerome Ropati try. With only five minutes before the break Darren Lockyer scored to put Australia in front 16-12 at halftime.
After half time both teams came out fired up however it was the Kiwis who scored first, fullback Lance Hohaia slipped past Lockyer and beat Slater to score. Billy Slater then panicked under pressure in the 65th minute and gifted Benji Marshall an easy try. The Kangaroos then closed the gap to 22-20 with a Greg Inglis try before a controversial penalty try put New Zealand comfortably clear. A Nathan Fien kick into the in goal was mishandled by Joel Monaghan who then took out Lance Hohaia, denying him a chance to ground the ball. Adam Blair then scored for New Zealand to seal the win, and the World Cup, for New Zealand.
Prior to the final New Zealand had only ever beaten Australia once in a World Cup match (7 July 1985)
22 November 2008, 8:00pm
[ 20 ] Australian Kangaroos
Tries: 2 Darren Lockyer (12', 35'), 1 David Williams (17'), 1 Greg Inglis (65').
Goals: 2/4 Johnathan Thurston (18', 36')
[ 34 ] New Zealand Kiwis
Tries: 1 + 1P Lance Hohaia (49', 70' penalty try), 1 Jeremy Smith (24'), 1 Jerome Ropati (28'), 1 Benji Marshall (61'), 1 Adam Blair (76')
Goals: 3/3 Isaac Luke (25', 28', 50'), 2/3 Benji Marshall (71', 77')
Half time: 16 - 12
Criticism/Controversy
Tournament Criticism
Due to the generally poor response of the 2000 World Cup, there were several key criticisms of the tournament before any matches had kicked off. The RLIF were forced to defend the credibility of the tournament in October 2007 after New Zealand, one of the favourites for the competition, were heavily beaten in a Test match 58-0 in Wellington against Australia. Another criticism was whether there would be enough competitiveness throughout the ten teams, with some fans hoping they worried about too the possibility of many one-sided matches, which was a common sight in the Group Stages of the 2000 tournament.
ARL Chairman Colin Love was again forced to defend the tournament from critics after Australia thrashed England 52-4 in Melbourne: "I don't think we should be embarrassed about how good an Australian team we produce".
However, the initial worries proved to be completely unsubstantiated and New Zealand's win over Australia in the final has appeared to silence these critics.
Australian Coach's Attacks
Ricky Stuart, coach of the Australian team, was reported to be so incensed by his team's defeat in the final that he verbally attacked Geoff Carr, the Chief Executive of Australian Rugby League, claiming that tournament organizers and match officials conspired to cause the Australian loss. The next morning he had a chance meeting with Ashley Klein, who refereed the final, and Stuart Cummings, England's director of referees, at their hotel. He is reported to have verbally abused both officials in front of a number of witnesses, calling Klein a cheat, and of being physically and aggressively intimidating. Stuart later apologised for his behaviour and resigned from his post.
Tickets
Tickets for Australian residents went on sale 7 November and internationally on 18 February . However tickets were not distributed until 3 March. Ticketek were announced as the official ticketing agency for the competition, selling tickets for all matches. Ticketmaster and Pilbeam Theatre were selling tickets to the Telstra Dome and Browne Park matches respectively.
The World Cup Final sold out months in advance.
Sponsorship
The Official Sponsors of the Rugby League World Cup 2008 are:
"Heroes 08" campaign
The World Cup's "Heroes 08" promotional campaign was launched from the Sydney Opera House.
Natalie Bassingthwaighte has recorded an "Australian version" of the Mariah Carey song "Hero" which accompanied the "Heroes 08" promotional video and other World Cup advertising. The World Cup Opening Ceremony featured a live performance of the song by Bassingthwaighte.
Filming of visuals for the promotional video began in Leeds during the worldwide ticketing launch for the event in November 2007.
Advertising agency MJW, celebrity photographer Garry Heery and production company Engine, worked together to combine the latest digital animation with a dark and determined set that highlighted the passion players feel in representing their country on the international stage.
The Heroes campaign featured Mark Gasnier (Australia), Roy Asotasi (New Zealand), Rob Burrow (England), Keith Peters (PNG), Waisale Suka (Fiji), Nigel Vagana (Samoa), Jerome Guisset (France), Lee Paterson (Scotland), Stuart Littler (Ireland) and Lopini Paea (Tonga). Gasnier was later removed from some of the promotional material after he left the sport mid-season and replaced by Cameron Smith.
Broadcasting
Television
The 2008 RLWC had 26 separate television deals taking coverage to 127 countries and generating more than $20 million income.
Channel 9 broadcast all Group A matches and the Knockout Stage matches in Australia. Fox Sports broadcast all Group B and C matches plus Ranking Stage matches live. In the United Kingdom, Sky Sports broadcast all matches live, because of this all were shown in the morning, some as early as 06:00AM. Sky Sport showed all games live across New Zealand. Mai TV broadcast all matches live in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands. Orange Sport provided coverage of all matches live in France.
Coverage of the competition also extended to countries not taking part. Showtime showed all matches live across the Middle East. G offered coverage of all games in many countries in Africa. Astro showed all matches in Malaysia, and ESPN 360 showed all matches in the United States. In Brazil, some matches were broadcast by Bandsports.
The only participating country with no television coverage of the matches was Tonga; the RLIF were hoping to secure a deal before the World Cup starts.
BigPondTV, an online television station, broadcasted all matches live and also repeated matches. This service is available to everyone for free.
Radio
- UK - BBC Radio 5 Live and its sister station BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra broadcasted selected games.
- AUS - ABC and 2GB Radio broadcasted selected games.
- NZ - Radio Sport broadcasted the Kiwi's games plus the Kiwi's victory in the final.
Sources
- , BBC website, retrieved 4 May, 2006.
- , Rugby League European Federation website, retrieved 8 May 2006
- , BBC website, retrieved 6 May, 2006.
- , telegraph.co.uk website, retrieved 8 May 2006
External links
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