1975 Rugby League World Cup

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The 1975 Rugby League World Cup (officially known as the 1975 Rugby League World Championship^[1]) was the seventh World Cup for men’s rugby league national teams and ran from 2 March to 12 November. Australia were the winners for a fourth time after topping the group table.^[2]

Unlike previous World Cups, there was no one host country, with the five participating nations hosting matches over eight months. Each team had to play the others on a 'home and away' basis. For the first time Great Britain did not compete and instead England and Wales entered to participate for the first time, taking advantage of a glut of Welsh talent in the British game at the time.

Teams

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Venues

14 venues across the five competing countries hosted games of the 1975 Rugby League World Cup. Wales used their own home venue at Swansea, but also played home games in England in both Salford and Warrington. England also played a 'home' game against Wales at Lang Park in Brisbane, Australia.

Template:Flagicon Sydney	Template:Flagicon Marseille	Template:Flagicon Brisbane	Template:Flagicon Bradford	Template:Flagicon Wigan
Sydney Cricket Ground	Stade Vélodrome	Lang Park	Odsal Stadium	Central Park
Capacity: 70,000	Capacity: 49,000	Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 40,000
File:Sydney Showground and Cricket Ground 1936 (14019783946).jpg	File:Marseille - vue générale du terrain, de la piste et des gradins du stade vers le massif de Marseilleveyre.tif	File:Suncorp Stadium Brisbane Australia 04.jpg	File:Odsal Stadium - geograph.org.uk - 60082.jpg	File:Central park kop.jpg
Template:Flagicon Toulouse	Template:Flagicon Leeds	Template:Flagicon Bordeaux	Template:Flagicon Auckland	Template:Flagicon Salford
Stadium Municipal	Headingley	Stade du Parc Lescure	Carlaw Park	The Willows
Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 32,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 17,000
File:15.02.1961.Vues aériennes de Toulouse. (1961) - 53Fi3059.jpg	File:South Stand, Headingley Stadium during the second day of the England-Sri Lanka test (21st April 2014) 001.JPG	File:Stade Chaban-Delmas Rugby.jpg	File:Carlaw Park, 1958 (crop).jpg	File:The Willows, Salford.jpg
Template:Flagicon Swansea	Template:Flagicon Christchurch	Template:Flagicon Warrington	Template:Flagicon Perpignan
St Helen's Rugby Ground	Addington Showgrounds	Wilderspool Stadium	Stade Gilbert Brutus
Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 13,000
File:Swansea, St. Helen's Ground - geograph.org.uk - 5043748.jpg	File:Addington Rugby Stadium.jpg	File:Wilderspool.jpg	File:Tribune Guasch Laborde.JPG

Warm-up games

The teams arranged a number of warm-up games against local opposition during the World Championship, detailed below.

England

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance^[3]
1 June	Western Australia	Won 40–2^[4]	Perth	6,000
7 June	Toowoomba	Won 25–16^[5]	Toowoomba	3,000
15 June	Southern Division (NSW)	Won 19–8^[6]	Gosforth	3,000
18 June	North Island (NZ)	Won 42–4^[7]	Huntly	2,490
29 June	Illawarra	Lost 12–15^[8]	Wollongong	4,000
2 July	Brisbane	Lost 10–21^[9]	Brisbane	9,000
6 July	Papua New Guinea	Won 40–12^[10]	Port Moresby	12,000

Wales

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance^[11]
5 June	Ipswich	Won 35–13^[12]	Ipswich	4,000
18 June	Wellington	Won 52–8^[7]	Wellington	2,000
22 June	West Coast (NZ)	Won 35–5^[13]	Greymouth	2,000
24 June	Canterbury	Won 25–18^[14]	Christchurch	2,500
1 July	Auckland	Lost 5–31^[15]	Auckland	12,000
3 July	New Zealand Māori	Won 18–12^[16]	Rotorua	2,500

France

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance^[17]
12 June	Auckland	Lost 3–9	Auckland	10,000
22 June	Wide Bay	Won 36–10	Bundaberg	4,000
25 June	Lithgow-Oberon	Won 24–17	Lithgow	1,360
27 June	NSW Group 6	Lost 0–2	Campbelltown	2,600
29 June	Monaro	Lost 0–26	Queanbeyan	5,700

Australia

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance^[18]
30 September	Auckland	Won 17–6	Auckland	7,251
10 October	Salford	Won 44–6^[19]	Salford	5,357
12 October	St Helens	Won 32–7^[20]	St Helens	10,170
23 October	Rouergue XIII	Won 35–4	Albi	2,000
4 November	Oldham	Won 20–10^[21]	Oldham	3,575
9 November	York	Won 45–4^[22]	York	4,082

New Zealand

Date	Opponents	Score	Venue	Attendance^[23]
15 May	North Queensland Firsts	Lost 16–20	Townsville
18 May	Central Queensland	Won 57–11	Rockhampton
21 May	Northern Division	Won 37–19	Tamworth
24 May	NSW Country Firsts	Won 33–26	Newcastle	6,000
27 May	North Coast	Lost 3–12	Tweed Heads
1 November	South West France	Won 39–4
4 November	Barrow	Won 24–0^[24]	Barrow-in-Furness
9 November	Keighley	Won 20–8^[25]	Keighley

Results

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Template:Rugbybox In this match Mick Cronin kicked nine goals.

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Template:Rugbybox England winger Keith Fielding created a new record by scoring four tries against a hapless French team at Bordeaux.

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Template:Rugbybox Kangaroo wing prodigy Ian Schubert also scored a hat-trick tries.

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English stand-off Ken Gill ran in three tries. Template:Rugbybox

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Template:Rugbybox In this match Jim Mills, the Wales prop, was banned for the rest of the season after an altercation. The ban was eventually lifted on 2 January 1976.

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Final standings

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Final challenge match

As Australia had not beaten England to win the World Cup (a draw and a loss), a one off challenge match was arranged, although this was not officially classed as a Final as Australia had already been crowned Champions after topping the group.

The Kangaroos showed they were worthy World Champions with a comprehensive 25–0 win at Headingley in front of a disappointing crowd of 7,680 which was over 11,000 less than had attended the 1970 World Cup final, between Great Britain and Australia, at the same venue. England had shown little interest in playing the game. Template:Rugbybox