Wynne Gray's 50 greatest rugby moments: No.31

Jonah Lomu in action during the 1995 World Cup final. Photo / NZ Herald

As the frenzy rose towards the 1995 World Cup final, the world's media was invited to a summit conference at the Ellis Park venue.

Top officials from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia announced a multi-million package spread over a 10-year-deal to run the Super 12 tournament and the Tri-Nations test series.

It was an inevitable consequence of demands from players and coaches, especially in the southern hemisphere, that they be compensated for what had become fulltime work while objections were led by England who claimed the renegades had made a massive mistake.

In the multi-decorated trophy room at Ellis Park, the Sanzar alliance revealed they had gained the backing of Rupert Murdoch's empire where they would accrue a 10-year television rights deal worth US $555 million.

It was an arrangement they claimed would halt the raids on their players from league. Sanzar officials had used their time during the tournament to stitch up their deal after Murdoch saw Jonah Lomu's exploits on television and demanded the All Blacks left wing be signed to a new professional rugby series.

Meanwhile others at the World Cup, swapped information and checked other lucrative deals which were coming from the rebel WRC group.

All it proved was rugby's skyrocketing value as the global markets turned their attention to links between the sport and television. Sanzar had done a deal with the major southern hemisphere nations however none of their players were on the books.

The rugby hierarchy remained vulnerable. For another few months the battle raged across the three nations. Both sides felt they were making progress and at one stage there was supposed to be a telephone hookup between the three national captains, to endorse the rebel group's progress.

It fell through and eventually players signed for guaranteed wages from Sanzar rather than the promises of huge deals from WRC and on August 27, the IRB formally announced the end of amateurism.