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RUGBY WORLD CUP 2003
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Rugby has a rich and long tradition. It was
1823 at the Rugby School in England when
legend has it that William Webb Ellis picked
up a soccer ball and ran with it. From that
spontaneous begining rugby has grown into
a major international sport played in more
than 135 countries and governed by the
International Rugby Board (IRB).
The Rugby World Cup had a distinctly
antipodean genesis when in 1983 the Australian
Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby
Football Union independently wrote to the
IRB about a Rugby World Cup tournament.
In 1987 the inaugural Rugby World Cup
(RWC) was jointly staged in Australia and
New Zealand. Sixteen countries were invited to
participate and about 600,000 people attended
matches. Broadcasts went to 17 countries with
a global audience of about 300 million.
New Zealand won the inaugural cup, beating
the European champions France at Eden Park.
2003
AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2003
AUSTRALIA $1.10
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2003 RUGBY WORLD CUP 2003
The world in union
©
8 October 2003
Four Rugby World Cups and sixteen years
later the RWC is the third most popular sporting
event, in terms of revenue and viewing
audience, surpassed only by the Olympics
and the Federation Intérnationalé de
Football Association World Cup.
The issue
The three stamps (one each 50c, $1.10,
$1.65) and miniature sheet show distinctive
aspects of the game of rugby and the Rugby
World Cup trophy (the Webb Ellis Cup).
The stamps show a sequence of play using
silhouetted figures in action to tell the story
of the game.
The 50c stamp features the pass with
a graphic representation of the goals and
silhouettes of players running with the ball.
The central stamp ($1.10) features the
Webb Ellis Cup against a background
depiction of night play at Telstra Stadium.
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