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36 key events since rugby turned professional in 1995, 25 years ago to this very day
Rugby union turned professional when it was declared an open sport on August 26, 1995, a couple of months after South Africa had won the third edition of the World Cup. It represented a huge change for the players and coaches in a sport that is now professionally 25 years old.
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Here the PA news agency takes a look at some of the key events since rugby union left behind its amateur roots and turned professional:
August 26, 1995: The International Rugby Board declared the sport an “open game” and so all restrictions on payments to those connected to rugby union were removed.
October 31, 1995: Toulouse and Farul Constanta contest the first-ever Heineken Cup group match, with the French side winning 54-10. This new professional rugby tournament involved twelve teams from France, Ireland, Italy, Romania and Wales.
January 6, 1996: A crowd of 21,800 pack into the Cardiff Arms Park to watch Toulouse win the first-ever Heineken Cup with a 21-18 extra-time victory against Cardiff.
It's hard to believe it's a quarter of a century on Wednesday that the late Vernon Pugh declared rugby an “open” sporthttps://t.co/5aJaCXHq8C
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 25, 2020
March 1 1996: SANZAR, a joint venture of the South African Rugby Union, the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Australian Rugby Union, launch the inaugural professional rugby Super 12 season. Auckland Blues would clinch the title at Eden Park almost three months later.
March 16 1996: England, under the coaching direction of Jack Rowell, triumph in the first Five Nations of the professional rugby era.
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July 6 1996: New Zealand beat Australia in Wellington in the opening match of the Tri-Nations series and the All Blacks clinch the inaugural tournament after winning all four of their fixtures.
July 13 1996: England are kicked out of the Five Nations after selling their TV rights for the professional rugby tournament to BSkyB for £87.5million. England were later reinstated before the 1997 edition got underway.
January 25 1997: In the first season with English sides in the Heineken Cup, Leicester make it all the way to the final where they come unstuck against Brive in Cardiff.
February 1 1997: England, after months of talks, defeat Scotland 41-13 at Twickenham in their opening match of the Five Nations.
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August 23 1997: The Allied Dunbar Premiership, previously titled the Courage League National One, kicks off with Newcastle beating Bath at The Rec. The Falcons would secure the title by one point ahead of Saracens.
January 31 1998: Bath become the first English winners of the Heineken Cup with a narrow 19-18 victory against Brive in Bordeaux.
Something to jog the memory https://t.co/tIcNWTTdIP
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 25, 2020
August 24 1998: Cardiff and Swansea pull out of the Welsh Premier Division and are fined £150,000 each by the Welsh Rugby Union following talks regarding a cross-British league. Instead of playing in the top flight of Welsh rugby, the clubs contest friendlies against all 14 Premiership teams.
September 18 1998: The fourth edition of the Heineken Cup gets underway without English sides after a dispute between European Rugby and the RFU. Cardiff and Swansea also fail to take part due to their ongoing battle with the Welsh Rugby Union.
February 6 1999: The Five Nations starts with England part of the tournament despite being thrown out of the competition a month earlier following more debate over the television deal with Sky. They were eventually reinstated while Italy, who were to be drafted in as a replacement, were made to wait for their chance.
September 3 1999: After the Scottish Rugby Union and Welsh Rugby Union join forces, an inaugural Welsh-Scottish League is formed with Edinburgh and Glasgow involved alongside ten clubs from Wales.
October 17 1999: Jason Robinson completes a high-profile switch of codes from Wigan to Sale days after a loss to St Helens in the Super League Grand Final.
November 6 1999: Australia beat France 35-12 at the Millennium Stadium to win the first World Cup in the professional era.
November 19 1999: Leicester, Bath, Wasps, Saracens, Harlequins and Northampton take part in the Heineken Cup, bringing an end to the exodus of English clubs in the competition.
February 5 2000: Italy secure a shock victory over holders Scotland at Stadio Flaminio in Rome on their first appearance in the new Six Nations.
May 20, 2001: Harlequins end the four-year dominance of French sides in the European Challenge Cup – the second-tier competition below the Heineken Cup – with a 42-33 success over Narbonne at the Madejski Stadium.
August 17, 2001: The Celtic League, containing Irish sides in addition to teams from Wales and Scotland, begins, with Leinster clinching glory in the inaugural season of the event.
May 11, 2002: The Welsh-Scottish League concludes after three seasons, with Llanelli the final winners of the tournament.
November 22, 2003: A drop goal from Jonny Wilkinson hands England a maiden World Cup victory in the final against Australia in Sydney.
February 10, 2006: The Super 12 is expanded to become the Super 14 after Western Force and the Cheetahs join.
April 12, 2009: Harlequins become embroiled in the ‘Bloodgate’ scandal. It transpires that wing Tom Williams was given a fake blood capsule to allow the substituted Nick Evans to come on as a blood replacement in their Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster. Despite fly-half Evans getting back on the pitch, he misses his late drop-goal attempt and Leinster win.
September 2, 2009: Harlequins escape a ban from the competition after the European Rugby Cup board approved a punishment involving a twelve-month ban for Williams, which was reduced to four on appeal, a three-year suspension for director of rugby Dean Richards and a two-year ban for physiotherapist Steph Brennan. Quins were fined £260,000, while chairman Charles Jillings resigned.
September 4, 2010: Aironi and Benetton Treviso join the Celtic League, which eventually rebrands as PRO12 due to it now containing clubs from Italy in addition to Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
February 18, 2011: The first campaign of a new 15-team format for the re-titled Super Rugby begins after Melbourne Rebels became the fifth Australian outfit to join, with entry for South Africa’s Southern Kings denied.
August 18, 2012: The Rugby Championship replaces the Tri-Nations, with Argentina now part of the annual tournament alongside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
December 18, 2014: Dan Carter signs deal worth a reported €1.5million to become the highest-paid player in the world after he agrees on a move to Racing 92 after the 2015 World Cup.
August 6, 2016: Rugby 7s appears in a summer Olympics for the first time as the men’s and women’s events get underway. Fiji take glory in the men’s section.
September 1, 2017: The PRO12 expands to become the PRO14 after South African sides the Cheetahs and Southern Kings join the competition.
November 5, 2019: Saracens are docked 35 points and fined more than £5m after breaching salary-cap rules.
January 18, 2020: Premiership Rugby confirms Saracens will be relegated to the Championship at the end of the season, with league chief executive Darren Childs admitting they had to be “prepared to take strong action to enforce the regulations governing fair competition between our clubs”.
March 16, 2020: Rugby union in England is suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the Six Nations and other tournaments across the world already halted. The Gallagher Premiership would not return until August.
June 13, 2020: Rugby union returns in New Zealand after the coronavirus pandemic with Highlanders beating Chiefs in Super Rugby in front of over 20,000 supporters at the Forsyth Barr Stadium.
"Many Northampton fans didn’t want me & were very outspoken. They assumed I was on mega wedge, not the academy contract that I essentially signed"@jameshaskell on hateful fan sites, I'm a Celebrity edits screwing him; MMA, BLM & more w/@heagneyl ???https://t.co/9SsEeGT790
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 16, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Good luck Aussie
10 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
37 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
10 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
37 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
37 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
37 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
37 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. All the Kiwis sticking up for this unprincipled individual because they can't accept justified criticism, he has zero credibility or integrity. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
37 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
37 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
2 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to comments