Cool Anzacs played great game in 1986

Captain David Kirk holds the first Rugby World Cup after the All Blacks won in 1987. Herald file picture

In 1986, New Zealand (with Australia as a quarter-partner) won the right in a Los Angeles hotel room containing five members of the International Rugby Board and the two cool-headed high-stakes poker players to hold the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup.

The poker players were disguised as Dick Littlejohn of the New Zealand Rugby Union and Nick Shehadie of the Australian Rugby Union.

In previous months the New Zealand-Australia world tournament bid seemed likely to be smashed on the rocks of the IRB majority who did not really approve of a world event, especially when it was run by what might appear to be colonial upstarts.

The odds in that Los Angeles hotel room started at 5-2 against the southern partners.

They knew one IRB man, John Kendall Carpenter, was sympathetic to the World Cup idea. Littlejohn and Shehadie asked that another IRB man, Bob Weighill, be made secretary, so did not have a vote.

That made it 3-2 against Australia and New Zealand.

Then Kendall-Carpenter used his deliberative vote for 3-all, and dropped in his casting vote in favour of the New Zealand-Australia bid.

"None of the recent ceremony and drama," said Littlejohn yesterday. "We finally jacked it up with a telephone conference call."

The 2011 bids by South Africa, Japan and New Zealand contained masses of detail.

In 1987 things were very different. The necessary sponsorship money was slow to appear. Three months before the May 22 kick-off the NZRFU hoped for pay-dirt in Japan.

Littlejohn attended a test in Wellington on a Saturday, returned home to Whakatane on the Sunday, flew to Japan on the Monday morning, graciously accepted backing of $US3.25 million from the KDD broadcasting firm, and flew back to New Zealand the same day with the 1987 tournament financially secure.

"I spoke in English, my interpreter, Japanese-American Jack Sakizaki, turned my words into Japanese. On the way back to the airport I asked Jack how my speech was received."

"Ah, Dick, you made some mistakes, but I corrected them and they were happy," he said.

There were other times when the New Zealand-Australian progress was also like seat-of-the-pants flying in a home-made plane.

Sixteen teams (South Africa abstaining) were signed and sealed for the inaugural event, but Littlejohn's committee decided to have a reserve team on standby.

"We picked Western Samoa, as their team could be assembled quickly. We had to have playing gear ready, but no one seemed to know their playing uniform, and as it was secret we could not ask Western Samoa," said Littlejohn.

"Ivan Vodanovich was the gear man [he also had the key to the NZRFU gear locker] but he could not find out the Western Samoa playing gear. Then one day he was walking down the street and saw a youngster in a strange blue footy jersey with a national monogram, and was told the lad had won it playing for Western Samoa colts. 'How about giving me your jersey'," said Ivan.

"No," said the boy.

"Would you swap it for an All Black jersey with your number on it?"

The deal was done - but Western Samoa were not needed.

It was a close call, though, for a few days before the Webb Ellis Cup tournament started Sitiveni Rabuka caused a major political coup in Fiji, and Littlejohn got out his worry beads again.

"The day Fiji were due to arrive I could not make contact to find out whether they would be coming," said Littlejohn.

"So I shot up to Auckland Airport and found an obliging chap who could talk to the pilot of the plane en route from Nadi. He came back with the word that the Fijians were on the plane."

Littlejohn tossed and turned in his bed early yesterday.

"I listened to the ceremony from Dublin, and afterwards felt just great. I was worried the future of the Rugby World Cup would be decided for financial reasons and not for the good of rugby. Thank heavens rugby is still the No 1 reason for the RWC."

* D. J. Cameron covered the 1987 World Cup for the Herald.