2015-09-16Staff Report 2 The Rugby World Cup trophy, known as the Webb Ellis Cup, is the trophy awarded every four years to the winning team of the Rugby World Cup. The silver-gilt trophy is named after Briton William Webb Ellis, who is often credited as the inventor of the game. The trophy is 38 centimetres tall, weighs 4.5 kg and is supported by two cast scroll handles. On one handle there is a head of a satyr, on the other the 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 trophy is also referred to as “Bill”, a nickname coined by the 1991 Rugby World Cup winners, the Australians. John Kendall-Carpenter, former England forward and organiser of the first Rugby World Cup, as well as Bob Weighill, the secretary of the International Rugby Board and also a former England forward, visited Garrard & Co, the crown jeweler in Regent Street, London where Garrard & Co Director Richard Jarvis brought this particular cup down from the vault and showed it to both of them. It was chosen for use in February 1987 after Ronnie Dawson of Ireland, Keith Rowlands of Wales, Bob Stuart and Dick Littlejohn of New Zealand and the Australians, Nick Shehadie and Ross Turnbull, all approved the choice of the trophy. 2015-09-16Staff Report 2
