This article lists the official squads for the 1987 Rugby World Cup that took place in

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 ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

from 22 May until 20 June 1987. The

1987 Rugby World Cup The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches (17 pool stage matches, two quarter-finals, the third-place play-off and the final) while Australia hosted 11 ...

was the inaugural

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

; the

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

for

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. Sixteen nations were invited to partake in the tournament, with the notable exception of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

; who were excluded from the tournament due to issues surrounding

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. Players marked (c) were named as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

for their national squad. All details, such as number of international caps and player age, are current as of the opening day of the tournament on 22 May 1987.

Overview

Below is a table listing all the head coaches and captains for each nation.

Pool 1

Head coach: Alan Jones

Head coach:

George Hook George Hook (born 19 May 1941) is an Irish people, Irish Broadcasting, broadcaster, journalist and rugby union pundit. He formerly hosted ''The Right Hook'' and ''High Noon'' on the Irish radio station Newstalk. He had a career as a rugby unio ...

Ron Mayes Ron Mayes (born 1946) is a New Zealand former rugby union player and coach, best known for coaching the United States national rugby union team from 1983 to 1987. Early life and career Mayes was born in New Zealand in 1946. He was capped in N ...

Head coach: Martin Green

Head coach: Katsumi Miyaji

Pool 2

Head coach: Tony Gray

Head coach: Gary Johnston

*Prior to the tournament,

Nigel Carr Nigel Carr (born 27 July 1959) was an Ireland rugby union international whose promising career was cut short due to injuries sustained in an IRA bomb explosion. Early life Nigel John Carr was born in Belfast on 27 July 1959. He won Irish U-23 ...

withdrew from the Irish squad due to injury. Head coaches: Mick Doyle (replaced by

Syd Millar John Sydney Millar (born 23 May 1934) is a former rugby union prop from Northern Ireland who played international rugby for Ireland and the British Lions. After retiring from playing rugby he became a rugby coach and later a rugby administrator ...

) / Jim Davidson

Head coach: Mailefihi Tuku'aho

Pool 3

Head coaches: Brian Lochore * Andy Dalton was ruled out of the tournament due to an injury in a practice session. As a result, David Kirk assumed the role of captain.

Head coaches:

Josateki Sovau Ratu Josateki Sovau (born Nadi, 1951 – April 2005) was a Fijian rugby union player, coach and Taukei Naua. He played as a prop. Career His first international cap for Fiji was during a match against New Zealand Māori, at Christchurch, on 25 ...

and

George Simpkin George Dreadon Simpkin (22 May 1943 – 7 May 2020) was a New Zealand rugby union coach, known for working with the national teams of Fiji, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. He made a great contribution to the development of rugby union and rugby seve ...

Head coach:

Marco Bollesan Marco Bollesan (7 July 1941 – 11 April 2021) was an Italian rugby union player, coach and manager. Biography Born in Genoa; later he got a job as iron worker at the Italsider and started playing rugby as senior at the CUS Genoa Rugby (the U ...

Head coaches: Héctor Silva / Ángel Guastella Before the match against

, Martín Yangüela withdrew due to an injury and was replaced by Marcelo Faggi. Fracaso Puma, victoria para el rugby
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Pool 4

Head coach: Jacques Fouroux

Head Coach:

Derrick Grant Derrick Grant (born 19 April 1938) is a former international rugby union player. Grant was capped fourteen times as a flanker for between 1965 and 1968. He scored one try for Scotland.Griffiths, page 2:30-2:31 He was selected for the 1966 ...

Head coach: Mihai Naca

Head coach: Brian Murphy

References

{{Rugby Union World Cup Rugby World Cup squads Squads, 1987 Rugby World Cup