The 1995 Rugby League World Cup squads were made up of players from the national

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football teams of ten countries: Australia, England, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Tonga, Wales and Western Samoa.

Australia

Due to the

Super League war The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. Super ...

, the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...

did not select any player who had signed with

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. As 100% of Australia's squad was sourced from Australian Rugby League-aligned players, several test players from the successful

1994 Kangaroo Tour The 1994 Kangaroo Tour was the 18th and last Kangaroo Tour played in the conventional format, where the Australia national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) played a number of matches against British and Fre ...

were not selected for the World Cup, though a number of the team had played in the 3-0 Trans-Tasman Test series win over

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

earlier in the year. Super League aligned

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

players, including

Laurie Daley Laurie William Daley AM (born 20 October 1969), also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a and in the 1980s and 1990s. He represented Aus ...

Ricky Stuart Ricky John Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canberra Raiders in the NRL and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. He ...

took the ARL to court during 1995 in a bid to be able to play in the World Cup. The court found in their favour and ordered the ARL to consider all players for selection regardless of who they were aligned to. However, as one unnamed ARL official was quoted as saying, the ARL were only forced to consider Super League players, not select them. Just how many, if any, Super League players were considered for selection remains unknown and speculation remains that behind closed doors no Super League player was considered. *Coach:

Bob Fulton Robert Fulton (1 December 1947 – 23 May 2021), also nicknamed "Bozo", was an Australian international rugby league footballer, coach and later commentator. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great succe ...

*Manager:

Geoff Carr Geoffrey Marc Carr (born 1952) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and administrated in the 1990s and 2000s. He was the CEO of the Australian Rugby League as well as the New South Wales Rugby Le ...

*Gary Larson originally declined selection citing personal reasons. When Paul Harragon was injured he answered Bob Fulton's call to join the squad and ended up playing in the final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

England

Long time

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and England back rower

Denis Betts Denis Charles Betts (born 14 September 1969) is an English rugby league coach and former player. He was assistant coach of the England national team. A , Betts played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s for the Wigan Warriors, with whom he won numer ...

, playing for the

Auckland Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

in the

premiership, made history by becoming the first player selected to captain England while not playing for a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

club. Coach:

Phil Larder Philip John Larder MBE (born 20 March 1945), is an English rugby league and rugby union coach, and former player in both codes. He coached England and Great Britain national teams in rugby league, and in rugby union he was defence coach of Eng ...

Fiji

Coach:

Graham Murray Graham Ernest Murray (6 January 1955 – 28 July 2013) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin head coach, Murray c ...

France

Coach: Ivan Grésèque

New Zealand

Coach:

Frank Endacott Frank Morris Endacott , also known by the nickname of "Happy Frank", is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer, and coach. Background His son, Shane, also played rugby league. Playing career Endacott played for Addington and ...

Papua New Guinea

Coach:

Joe Tokam Joe Tokam is a Papua New Guinean rugby league coach and administrator who coached Papua New Guinea at the 1995 World Cup. Playing career Tokam retired from playing in 1983. Coaching career Tokam coached Papua New Guinea in the 1995 World Cup. ...

South Africa

Coach: Tony Fisher

Tonga

Coach: Mike McClennan *Luke Leilua, Angelo Dymock,

Mateaki Mafi Mateaki Fonnama'atonga Mafi, also known by the nickname of "Matti", is a Tongan dual-code international rugby union and rugby league footballer, and sprinter. He played representative rugby union (RU) for rugby league and representative r ...

Frank Watene Frank Watene (born 15 February 1977) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a or forward in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He played at representative level for Tonga (1995 Rugby League World Cup squad), New Zealand Junio ...

and

Andrew Tangata-Toa Andrew Tangata-Toa (born 15 February 1974) is a Tongan former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s. Primarily a er, he played for the Newcastle Knights, St George Dragons and Huddersfield Giants. Background Born on the ...

were all named in the squad but did not play a game. *Tonga were hit with the withdrawals of

Jim Dymock Jim Dymock (born 4 April 1972) is a professional rugby league coach who is the assistant coach of the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A Tonga and Australia inter ...

and

John Hopoate John Hopoate (born 16 January 1974 in Tonga) is a former professional rugby league player and boxer who was involved in numerous sport controversies and subsequently convicted for violent crimes. He played rugby league in the Tonga national rug ...

, who were both included in the Australian squad, and

Gorden Tallis Gorden James Tallis (born 27 July 1973), also known by the nickname of "Raging Bull" for his on-field aggression, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A Queensland State of Origin and ...

and

Albert Fulivai Albert Fulivai (born 25 June 1968) is an Australian former rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played representative level rugby union (RU) for Australian Schoolboys and Australia national ...

, who both withdrew due to injury.Coffey and Wood ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League''

Wales

Coach: Clive Griffiths

Western Samoa

Coach:

Graham Lowe Sir Graham Michael Lowe is the owner of the Bradford Bulls together with fellow New Zealander Andrew Chalmers. He is a New Zealand former rugby league football coach and administrator. He previously coached in Australia and England and was the ...

References

External links

1995 Rugby League World Cup Squads
''rugbyleagueproject.org''

''The Vault'' {{1995 in rugby league

Squads In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

Rugby League World Cup squads