1972 Rugby League World Cup
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
1972 Rugby League World Cup result: Great Britain won the title, beating Australia 10–10 (Great Britain won on group record) in the final. Hosted by France.
Full match archive (7 games)
Groups
World Cup Table
| Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Diff | Pts | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 44 | +49 | 6 | WWW |
| Australia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 61 | 41 | +20 | 4 | LWW |
| France | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 33 | 53 | -20 | 2 | WLL |
| New Zealand | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 33 | 82 | -49 | 0 | LLL |
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Oct 1972 | France 20–9 New Zealand | Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France | N/A |
| 29 Oct 1972 | Great Britain 27–21 Australia | Stade Gilbert Brutus, Perpignan, France | N/A |
| 1 Nov 1972 | France 4–13 Great Britain | Stade Lesdiguières, Grenoble, France | N/A |
| 1 Nov 1972 | Australia 9–5 New Zealand | Parc des Princes, Paris, France | N/A |
| 4 Nov 1972 | Great Britain 53–19 New Zealand | Stade du Hameau, Pau, France | N/A |
| 5 Nov 1972 | France 9–31 Australia | Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, France | N/A |
Knockout stage
Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Nov 1972 | Great Britain 10–10 Australia | Stade de Gerland, Lyon, France | 4,231 |
Tournament facts
| Host | France |
| Dates | October – November 1972 |
| Teams | 4 |
| Games played | 7 |
| Players used | 73 |
| Average crowd | 8,922 |
Teams (4)
Context
The last World Cup played under the four-tackle rule before the code moved to six tackles.
One of the strangest finishes in World Cup history: Great Britain and Australia finished the final level at 10-10 after full time and extra time at Lyon's Stade Gerland, and with no replay scheduled, the title was awarded to Great Britain on their superior pool-stage record. The match featured a long-range try from British captain Clive Sullivan and a score from Australia's Graeme Langlands that French referee Georges Jameau disallowed live, but which television replays later suggested was legitimate. Mike Stephenson's 73rd-minute try was what ultimately levelled the scores. The result put Great Britain level with Australia at three World Cup titles apiece. It also remains the only World Cup ever decided by a drawn final, a quirk of scheduling — with no replay budgeted for and the tournament calendar already tight — that the sport has never repeated since. The 4,231 crowd at Stade Gerland was modest even by the standards of the era, a reflection of how far the tournament's profile had fallen from the bigger crowds seen in the 1950s and 1960s, and part of why administrators would spend much of the following two decades experimenting with different formats — first a no-host, year-long round-robin in 1975, then two separate three-year Test-calendar-embedded cycles through the 1980s and early 1990s — trying to find one that reliably filled stadiums again. This was also the last World Cup played under the four-tackle rule: the code switched to six tackles from 1972 onward specifically to encourage more structured attacking play, a change that proved successful and has defined the sport's rulebook ever since.
Sources
← 1970 Rugby League World Cup1975 Rugby League World Cup →
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