History of the Rugby World Cup....

After a bit of a brief break, once again I warmly welcome all of you to “Quiz with Deran”. The year 2011 is now on, and on this year we’ve got quite a big number of mega sporting events on the world to be staged up. Among them the Cricket World Cup in India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh and the Rugby World Cup scheduled in New Zealand will stand out.

On this post, I will highlight some key stuff related to the history of the Rugby World Cup. Hope all you rugby fans out there will enjoy.

• The first ever Rugby World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand in 1987, and there were 16 nations who took part. The New Zealand All Blacks became the first ever champions in the history of Rugby World Cup by defeating France in the final.

• Since then the tournament has been held once in every four years (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 & 2007). New Zealand (1987), Australia (1991, 1999), South Africa (1995, 2007) and England (2003) have emerged as Champions of the Rugby World Cup from those events which have been staged so far.

• The trophy awarded is named as the William Webb Ellis Cup as a tribute to William Ellis.

• Ireland, Fiji, Canada and Samoa are the nations that have progressed to the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cups, but have never progressed beyond that stage.

• The record for most overall points accumulated in the final stages is held by English player Jonny Wilkinson.

Johnny Wilkinson (ENG)

• Grant Fox of New Zealand holds the record for most points in one competition, with 126 in 1987.

• Jason Leonard of England holds the record for most appearances with 22 between 1991 and 2003.

• Simon Culhane holds the record for most points in a match by one player, 45, as well as the record for most conversions in a match, 20.

Simon Culhane (NZ)

• Marc Ellis holds the record for most tries in a match, scoring six.

• New Zealander Jonah Lomu holds the records for overall tries in the final stages — 15 altogether from the 1995 and 1999 tournaments.

Jonah Lomu (NZ)

• Jonah Lomu and South African Bryan Habana share the most tries in one competition, with 8.

• The record for most penalties in a tournament, 31, is held by Gonzalo Quesada.

• Most drop goals in a match (5) is held by South Africa's Jannie de Beer.

• The most points scored in a game is 145 — by the All Blacks against Japan in 1995, with the widest margin being 142, held by Australia in a match against Namibia in 2003.