1977 Rugby League World Cup

The 1977 Rugby League World Cup was the eighth World Cup held for men’s national rugby league teams and hosted in Australia and New Zealand and ran between 29 May and 25 June. Australia were Champions after beating Great Britain in the Final at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

1977 World Cup
Number of teams	4
Host countries	Australia New Zealand
Winner	Australia (5th title)
Matches played	7
Attendance	109,688 (15,670 per match)
Points scored	235 (33.57 per match)
Top scorer	George Fairbairn (34)
Top try scorers	Allan McMahon (4) Graham Eadie (4)
Tournaments  < 1975 1985–1988 >

Teams

See also: 1977 Rugby League World Cup squads

Team	Nickname	Coach	Captain
Australia (8th appearance)	The Kangaroos	Terry Fearnley	Arthur Beetson
New Zealand (8th appearance)	The Kiwis	Ron Ackland	Tony Coll
Great Britain (7th appearance)	The Lions	Reg Parker	Roger Millward
France (8th appearance)	Les Chanticleers	José Calle	Yves Bégou

Venues

Sydney	Brisbane
Sydney Cricket Ground	Lang Park
Capacity: 70,000	Capacity: 35,000
Auckland	Christchurch
Carlaw Park	Addington Showground
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 15,000

Tour games

Great Britain and France arranged a number of tour games against local opposition during the World Championship, while Australia also played a short two-game tour for their visit to New Zealand.

Great Britain

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance[1]
7 June	Northern Maori	Won 18–14	Huntly	2,000
14 June	Auckland	Lost 10–14	Auckland
26 June	Monaro	Lost 12–33	Queanbeyan	17,500
30 June	Queensland	Won 18–13	Brisbane	8,000
3 July	North Queensland	Lost 14–17	Townsville	6,000
9 July	New South Wales	Lost 5–35	Sydney	7,244
17 July	Southern Division	Won 54–6	Gosford	6,000

France

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance[2]
29 May	Papua New Guinea	Lost 6–37	Port Moresby	14,000
31 May	Brisbane	Lost 12–14	Brisbane
7 June	Wellington	Won 8–0	Wellington	1,500
12 June	Newcastle	Lost 12–19	Newcastle	5,136
14 June	Toowoomba	Lost 10–14	Toowoomba	3,000

Australia

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance[3]
25 May	South Island	Won 68–5	Christchurch	2,500
1 June	Auckland	Lost 15–19	Auckland	10,000

Matches

Group stage

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
Australia	3	3	0	0	67	26	+41	6	Advances to the Final
Great Britain	3	2	0	1	58	35	+23	4
New Zealand	3	1	0	2	52	77	−25	2
France	3	0	0	3	33	72	−39	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

29 May

New Zealand	12 – 27	Australia

Carlaw Park, Auckland Attendance: 18,000

5 June

France	4 – 23	Great Britain

Carlaw Park, Auckland Attendance: 10,000

11 June

Australia	21 – 9	France

Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Attendance: 13,231

12 June

New Zealand	12 – 30	Great Britain

Addington Showground, Christchurch Attendance: 9,000

18 June

Australia	19 – 5	Great Britain

Lang Park, Brisbane Attendance: 27,000

19 June

New Zealand	28 – 20	France

Carlaw Park, Auckland Attendance: 8,000

Final

Main article: 1977 Rugby League World Cup final

25 June

Australia	13–12	Great Britain
Tries: Allan McMahon Russel Gartner John Kolc Goals: Michael Cronin (2/4)	[4]	Tries: Steve Pitchford Ken Gill Goals: George Fairbairn (3/4)

Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Attendance: 24,457 Referee: Billy Thompson Player of the Match: John Kolc

Australia

Great Britain

FB 1 Graham Eadie RW 2 Allan McMahon RC 3 Michael Cronin LC 4 Russel Gartner LW 5 Mark Harris FE 6 John Peard HB 7 John Kolc LK 8 Greg Pierce SR 9 Ray Higgs SR 10 Arthur Beetson (c) PR 11 Terry Randall HK 12 Nick Geiger PR 13 Greg Veivers Substitutions: IC 14 Denis Fitzgerald IC 15 Mark Thomas Coach: Terry Fearnley

FB 1 George Fairbairn RW 2 Stuart Wright RC 3 John Holmes LC 4 Les Dyl LW 5 Bill Francis SO 6 Roger Millward (c) SH 7 Steve Nash LF 8 Phil Hogan SR 9 Eddie Bowman SR 10 Len Casey PR 11 Jimmy Thompson HK 12 Keith Elwell PR 13 Steve Pitchford Substitutions: IC 14 Ken Gill IC 15 Peter Smith Coach: David Watkins

After their 19–5 win over Great Britain a week earlier at Lang Park in Brisbane (which actually drew 2,543 more fans than the Final), the Australians went into the Final as warm favourites. However, led by experienced captain Roger Millward, the Lions managed to dominate possession throughout the game, and it took a last minute try from Australian halfback John Kolc (playing his only international game for Australia) to secure the Cup in front of 24,457 spectators at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

1st Half

The Australian's opened the scoring through Allan McMahon who scored in the Paddington corner. Michael Cronin kicked the sideline conversion and Australia led 5–0. Great Britain soon his back with a try to Steve Pitchford. George Fairbairn converted the try to lock the scores at 5–5. The match was then highlighted by a 60-metre try to Australian centre Russel Gartner who pounced on a dropped ball from Lions fullback Fairbairn after a Great Britain scrum win to race away and score. Only converging defence from Gartner's opposite number Les Dyl kept him from scoring closer to the posts, giving Cronin a difficult conversion from midway between the posts and the touch line. Cronin missed the attempt and the Australian's led 8–5. Fairbairn then kicked a penalty goal to make the scores 8–7 closing in on half time.

Late in the first half the gritty and determined Lions were considered unlucky not to score when they were denied what would have been a certain try to winger Stuart Wright by English referee Billy Thompson. Wright had intercepted a pass from Cronin to Mark Harris 15 metres from the Australian line and was racing downfield with no one near him when Thompson called play back for an obstruction penalty to Great Britain rather than play advantage. Had Wright scored, and likely under the posts, it could have given the visitors a 12–8 lead going into the break. Instead, soon after Cronoin kicked a penalty goal from in front of the posts to make the score 10–7 going into half time.

2nd Half

Australia took the lead out to 13–7 after a try to John Kolc in the Randwick corner in front of the Bradman Stand. Fairbairn had dropped a downfield kick by Cronin and the ball was pounced upon by Allan McMahon. From acting half, Kolc then dummied which fooled Fairbairn and Bill Francis and he raced away to score in the corner. Cronin missed the difficult kick from the sideline and the score remained at 13–7.

The Lions then hit back with a try under the posts to replacement back Ken Gill which was converted by Fairbairn to bring the scores to 13–12. After Kolc was penalised for using an elbow on Roger Millward who was chasing his own chip-kick, Fairbairn then had a late chance to give Great Britain the lead with a penalty goal from 45 metres out, though his went just to the right of the posts into the waiting arms of Australian fullback Graham Eadie who took full advantage of the Lions defence line still being near halfway to run the ball back outside the Australian quarter line.^[5]

Try scorers

4

• Graham Eadie
• Allan McMahon

3

• Roger Millward
• Stuart Wright

2

• Jean-Jacques Cologni
• Kevin Fisher
• John Smith

1

• Denis Fitzgerald
• Russel Gartner
• Mark Harris
• John Kolc
• John Peard
• Terry Randall
• Mark Thomas
• Greg Veivers
• Jacques Guigue
• Christian Laskawiec
• Joël Roosebrouck
• Eddie Bowman
• Les Dyl
• Ken Gill
• Phil Hogan
• George Nicholls
• Steve Pitchford
• Mark Graham
• Chris Jordan
• Alan Rushton
• John Whittaker