Quote Originally Posted by William Treseder View Post
There have been 21 football World Cup finals, with only 8 different winners.
Only 7 rugby union World Cup finals with 4 different winners. That’s a better way to look at it, except if your a bitter City fan, who doesn’t like rugby. 👍
Actually 8 Rugby World Cups

NZ - 3
SA - 2
Aus - 2
Eng - 1

Last 8 football world cups - 5 winners (one more than rugby)

Germany (West and unified) - 2
Brazil - 2
France - 2
Spain - 1
Italy - 1

How about we extend this to finalists

8 Rugby world cups contended by 5 countries

Finalists -
NZ 4
Australia 4
France 3
England 3
South Africa 2

Last 8 Football World Cups - 8 Finalists

Germany 3
France 3
Brazil 3
Italy 2
Argentina 2
Spain 1
Netherlands 1
Croatia 1


Semi-Finalists? OK

8 Rugby World Cups - 8 teams making the semis
New Zealand 7
France 6
Australia 6
England 4
South Africa 4
Argentina 2
Wales 2
Scotland 1


Most recent 8 Football World Cups - 16 teams making the semis
Germany 5
Brazil 4
Netherlands 3
France 3
Italy 3
Argentina 2
England 2
Croatia 2
Bulgaria 1
Sweden 1
South Korea 1
Turkey 1
Portugal 1
Uruguay 1
Spain 1
Belgium 1

I don't think the list of semi-finalists will grow in rugby, and I wonder how many tournaments it would take for them to get 16 different semi-finalists. Considering Scotland are the only ones with a solitary semi-final appearance, and considering the only notable exclusion at the moment is Ireland, I doubt we'll see 12 different semi-finalists in the rugby world cup in our lifetimes. Japan could make it 10, but who could ever get it to 12?

Well done, Wales went top. But, the sportsman that most of the world will name if you mention you are Welsh is Gareth Bale.