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The 1995 Rugby World Cup or the Webb Ellis Cup was held in South Africa in the months of May and June and was the first to be hosted by any single nation. The first Rugby World Cup was held in the year 1987 in Australia and New Zealand and the second in 1991 saw main host England join hands with Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France to stage the matches. The 1995 edition was the first Rugby World Cup for the hosts South Africa and the expectation in the country was really high.
The 1995 Rugby World Cup had 16 participating nations participating nations fighting for the trophy. Eight quarter-finalists from the earlier World Cup and the hosts South Africa gained automatic entry while the remaining teams of the total 16 positions to be filled in were chosen through regional qualifying rounds . The teams were grouped under four Pools and each pool had two automatically qualified teams and two teams who have played the qualifying tournament. After the group leg matches, the top two teams of each group advanced to the Quarter Finals and the winners of the four matches there advanced to the semifinal to face each other there. South Africa and New Zealand were the two teams to play in the final in which the hosts defeated the Kiwis through an extra-time goal.
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The first Rugby World Cup to be held in a single country, the 1995 World Cup had a number of stadiums in different cities of South Africa as the venues. Among these were the Boet Erasmus Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the Newlands stadium in Cape Town, the Kings Park Stadium in Durban and the final was held in the Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg.
Apart from the hosts South Africa, the teams which gained automatic entry to the World Cup included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Western Samoa, Ireland, Scotland, France and England. Cote d'Ivorie from Africa, Argentina from the Americas, Japan from Asia, Tonga from Oceania and Italy, Romania and Wales from Europe were the teams to have gained admission through qualifying rounds.
The World Cup had the hosts South Africa as champions but the other finalist New Zealand made the win controversial complaining against a conspiracy of making their players ill through food-poisoning the day before the final. The World Cup saw the rise of a few players like Jonah Lomu, Andrew Mehrtens and Francois Pienaar . The presentation of the Cup to the South African captain by President Nelson Mandela wearing a team jersey was listed in the 100 Great Sporting Moments on a British Television.
Following are the links where you will find more information about the 1995 Rugby World Cup :
