1954 Rugby League World Cup

Shirts of the teams in 1954.

The World Cup was a French initiative. Led by Paul Barrière, who donated the Rugby League World Cup trophy himself,[5] they had been campaigning for such a tournament since before the Second World War. Teams from Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States were invited to join the hosts, France, for the first World Cup in 1953.[6] However, the tournament was not held until 1954, with all teams except the United States participating. The French had suggested that the United States play but the other nations were concerned about a lack of competitiveness which was borne out by France beating the United States 31–0 on 9 January 1954.[7] It had been suggested that Wales be invited instead of the USA but they weren't approached.[8]

The uncertainty of the ultimate outcome was of particular interest. In the early 1950s all four competing nations were quite capable of beating each other – no test series in the period was a foregone conclusion.

If there were a favourite it was Australia who had just won back the Ashes. However, in 1953 they had lost series to both the French and the Kiwis, while Great Britain had defeated New Zealand on the second half of their 1954 Australasian tour.

The form book merely provided a conundrum which was made more confusing when the British were forced, through injuries and players making themselves unavailable, to select a raw and largely untried squad which was given little credibility by the cynics.

The captains for this historic event were Puig-Aubert (France), Cyril Eastlake (New Zealand), Clive Churchill (Australia) and Dave Valentine (Britain). The referees were Warrington's Charlie Appleton and Rene Guidicelli (Perpignan).

The games were played at various venues in France with the Final played at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

Paris	Marseille	Toulouse
Parc des Princes	Stade Vélodrome	Stadium de Toulouse
Capacity: 48,712	Capacity: 49,000	Capacity: 37,000
Lyon	Bordeaux	Nantes
Stade de Gerland	Stade Chaban Delmas	Stade Marcel Saupin
Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 20,000

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• Gordon Brown

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