Background
The World Cup was a French initiative. Led by Paul Barrière, who donated the World Cup trophy himself, they had been campaigning for such a tournament since before World War II. Teams from America, Australia, Britain and New Zealand were invited to join hosts, France for the first World Cup in 1953. However the tournament was not held till 1954, with all teams except America participating.
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 was 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).
Read more about this topic: 1954 Rugby League World Cup
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