There was no one closer to the Rugby World Cup 2003 Final than Phil Waugh as Jonny Wilkinson kicked England to victory at Stadium Australia.
Over 20 years on, Waugh is hoping the Final's return to Sydney can deliver a different result after World Rugby made the decision.
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It came after the governing body locked in the seven host cities for the Australian event, with Accor Stadium set to host the Final on November 13 on top of the semi-finals and bronze medal match.
“I think Sydney has a special love for rugby and it's a great venue to host the semi-finals and the finals here and I'm sure that all of Sydney and all of NSW will embrace those massive events,” Waugh said to reporters.
“Sydney's our largest participation city around the country so having Sydney host the final (is great) and clearly Sydney's growing at a fast rate so the more boys and girls we have engaged with the game of rugby, that's going to help rugby into the future.”
Sydney beat out Melbourne and Perth for the Final, with World Rugby rejecting the temptation to aim for a World Cup record at the MCG.
"The conversations happened, absolutely, through the process," World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin confirmed.
"(WA Premier) Roger Cook by the way was pretty keen to host it in WA...there were serious commercial offers in play around that," World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson added.
Waugh was inches away from charging down Wilkinson’s kick and is hoping the noise from the spectacular would only be amplified as they return to the site of the 2000 Olympicw.
“I remember being out there and you genuinely couldn't hear the person next to you because the roar of England which Australians embraced and tried to outdo meant that you couldn't hear anything on the field,” he recalled.
“That's the nature of big events and that's what makes it such a great experience to be a part of. Clearly it was before mobile phones had cameras on them so everyone was genuinely engaged in the game and not holding up their cameras.
“It still goes back as one of my great highlights of my life.”
One notable omission was Canberra, which hosted games in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Robinson, the inaugural captain of the ACT Brumbies, concedes the lack of adequate stadia was the main rationale for heading elsewhere.
“It's disappointing that we haven't got the stadium, I've got a few chips on my shoulders as a lot of Brumbies do, we haven't quite got the stadium we’d love to be competitive (in bidding for matches),” he explained.
“We have a wonderful rugby community playing at home in Canberra, it’s a wonderful place to play the game. It’s just we haven't got the facilities really to compete for the scale of this tournament, which is a disappointment.
“I've got no doubt that the Brumbies will fill the team up, and I've got no doubt that the coaching and administrative support of the Wallabies will be supported by the Brumbies.”
Perth will host the opener on October 1. Games will also be held in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, and Townsville.
The round of 16 games will be shared across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, with quarter-finals held in Brisbane and Sydney.
“It will be the biggest World Cup ever in terms of ticket sales, with the venues that we're going to be announcing in due course across those seven cities,” Gilpin added.
“We've got 2.5 million tickets to sell across the tournament, so it can just squeak above the Rugby World Cup in England in 2015.
“We've got 52 matches now because we've got 2014, so we've got four more matches than we've ever had before. We've got a round the 16 that we've never had before in the format so that part's exciting because there's more knockout content than ever before.
“Six pools of four, different format. It'll be electric from the start.”
