Webb Ellis Cup

The Webb Ellis Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the Rugby World Cup. The Cup is named after William Webb Ellis, who is often credited as the inventor of rugby football. The trophy is silver gilt and has been presented to the winner of the Rugby World Cup since the first competition in 1987. It has been held by Australia (twice, in 1991 and 1999), South Africa (twice, in 1995 and 2007), New Zealand (1987) and England (2003).

The 38 centimetre trophy is gilded silver and is supported by two cast scroll handles. On one handle there is a head of a satyr, on the other there is head of a nymph. On the face of the trophy, the words International Rugby Football Board and below that arch The Webb Ellis Cup are engraved. The Webb Ellis Cup is also referred to (incorrectly) as the "Webb Ellis Trophy" or colloquially as "Bill", a nickname coined by the 1991 Rugby World Cup winners, the Wallabies.

History

The cup is a 1906 trophy made by Carrington and Co. of London, which was a Victorian design of a 1740 cup by Paul de Lamerie.

John Kendall-Carpenter, former England forward and the organiser of the first Rugby World Cup and Bob Weighill, the secretary of the International Rugby Board also a former England forward, visited Garrard's, the crown jeweler in Regent Street, London. Director Richard Jarvis, brought the particular cup down from...
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