2007 Rugby World Cup: Difference between revisions
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==Qualifying== |
==Qualifying== |
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{{main|2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying}} |
{{main|2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying}} |
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[[Image:World Map 2007 RWC |
[[Image:World Map 2007 RWC qualif.PNG|thumb|300px|right|Nations that particicpated in qualifying competition, or automatically qualified. Asia (purple), Africa (orange), Americas (green), Europe (blue) and Oceania (yellow). In total, over 90 nations took part.]] |
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[[Image:World Map 2007 RWC qualifed Result.PNG|thumb|300px|right|Nations that have qualified thus far, and the remaining repechage nations.]] |
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The eight quarter-finalists from the [[2003 Rugby World Cup]] all received automatic entry, with the other teams selected from a qualifying series around the world. Ten of the 20 positions available in the tournament will be filled by regional qualifiers, with an additional two being filled by [[repechage]] qualification. The regional qualifying tournaments were broken up into five distinct groups; [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Africa qualification|Africa]], [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Americas qualification|Americas]], [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Asia qualification|Asia]], [[2007 Rugby World Cup - European qualification|Europe]] and [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Oceania qualification|Oceania]]. Including the automatic qualifiers, over 90 nations are (or were) in qualifying contention for the tournament finals. |
The eight quarter-finalists from the [[2003 Rugby World Cup]] all received automatic entry, with the other teams selected from a qualifying series around the world. Ten of the 20 positions available in the tournament will be filled by regional qualifiers, with an additional two being filled by [[repechage]] qualification. The regional qualifying tournaments were broken up into five distinct groups; [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Africa qualification|Africa]], [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Americas qualification|Americas]], [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Asia qualification|Asia]], [[2007 Rugby World Cup - European qualification|Europe]] and [[2007 Rugby World Cup - Oceania qualification|Oceania]]. Including the automatic qualifiers, over 90 nations are (or were) in qualifying contention for the tournament finals. |
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Revision as of 09:07, 22 December 2006
The 2007 Rugby World Cup will be the sixth Rugby World Cup, for the quadrennial world championship. It will be hosted by France during September and October of 2007. France won the right to host the event in 2003, beating a bid from England.
Over 90 nations will participate in the regional qualifying competitions that started in 2004. The eight quarter-finalists from the 2003 event were automatically qualified.
This World Cup will have 20 nations contesting 48 matches over 44 days. Forty-three matches will be spread between ten French cities, with three matches to be held in Cardiff, Wales and two matches in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Bids
England announced in September of 2001 that they would be launching a solo bid to host the tournament, without the help of the other home unions. Both the 1991 and 1999 World Cups were hosted throughout the home nations, with England and Wales being the main host respectively. A spokesman for the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said "We are quite happy to stage it on our own. We have all the resources to do a very good job."[1] England, with France, both applied to be solo hosts of the tournament.[2] Tender document for the 2007 bidding process was due out on October 31, 2001.
There was some confusion surrounding the bids for the tournament when both England and France were invited to re-submit their plans. The International Rugby Board (IRB) stated that both countries must comply with tender document terms in one bid, but in their second option, could propose alternative ideas. The IRB stated that "England`s original proposal contained three plans for hosting the tournament with a traditional, new and hybrid format all on offer...The French bid, while complying with the tender document in all other respects, fell outside one of the `windows` in which the IRB wanted to stage an event". As a result the IRB advised both countries to resubmit the bids, one which must comply with tender document terms, and the other which can propse alternative schemes. The IRB wished the tournament to run from October to November, or June to July, whereas France's proposal was scheduled from September to October. One of Englands bids reduced the tournament from 20 nations (which would run alongside a 32-team 'World Nations Cup') to 16, and another altered the structure of the qualifying competition, with one option complied with all tender proposals. With the announcement in November, England and France were given until January 15 to re-submit their bids.[3]
It was announced in April that France beat England to hosting the tournament. The IRB council voted 18-3 in favour of France. In total there were 21 votes at the meeting; England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand all having two; and the International Amateur Rugby Federation, Canada, Argentina, Japan and Italy all having one. The tournament structure was moved to the proposed September-October format. The council's view was that the structure should remain as it was. It was also announced that 10 French cities would be hosting games, with the final as Stade de France, and with games being played in Wales and Scotland. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said that "This decision illustrates the qualities of our country and its capacity to host major sporting events...This World Cup will be the opportunity to showcase the regions of France where the wonderful sport of rugby is deeply rooted."[4]
Qualifying
The eight quarter-finalists from the 2003 Rugby World Cup all received automatic entry, with the other teams selected from a qualifying series around the world. Ten of the 20 positions available in the tournament will be filled by regional qualifiers, with an additional two being filled by repechage qualification. The regional qualifying tournaments were broken up into five distinct groups; Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Including the automatic qualifiers, over 90 nations are (or were) in qualifying contention for the tournament finals.
On July 16, 2005, Samoa and Fiji were confirmed as the qualifiers from Oceania, with Samoa finishing qualifying on July 30 as Oceania 1 and Fiji as Oceania 2. On July 8th 2006 Argentina qualified as Americas 1 by winning against Uruguay 26-0 in Buenos Aires. Americas 2 was revealed on August 12, when Canada defeated the United States 56-7 in Newfoundland. The United States went on to qualify as Americas 3 after beating Uruguay comfortably over two legs in early October. On October 14th 2006 Italy qualified as Europe 1 by winning against Russia 67-7 in Moscow, reaching the first place in its qualifying group; Romania defeated Spain 43-20 in Madrid, and also qualified for the World Cup as Europe 2. Namibia also qualified for their third-straight world cup after they earnt their spot in France by defeating Morocco over two legs in November. In late October it was announced that the IRB had withdrawn Colombo as the venue of the final Asian qualify tournament due to security problems.[5] Japan won the only Asian World Cup spot, after the tournament was moved to Hong Kong. Georgia was 14 points the better of Portugal over 2 legs to claim the last European spot in the World Cup.
There are at present only two positions left for the finals tournament - both repechage. One position will be decided between Tonga (Oceania) and Korea (Asia), whereas the other position will be contested by three nations - Morocco (Africa), Portugal (Europe) and Uruguay (America). Out of both competitions, both Tonga and Uruguay have been to World Cups in the past. If both of them qualify through, there will be no debuts at the finals tournament.
Teams
| Africa | Americas | Asia | Europe | Oceania |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Venues
France won the right to host the 2007 World Cup in 2003, and it was known that some of the Home Nations would also be hosting matches. Four matches are being held in Wales, at Cardiff's 74,500 Millennium Stadium, namely two Pool B games that involve the Welsh team, the match between Fiji and Canada, and a quarter-final. Ireland were set to host matches in Dublin at Lansdowne Road, but due to scheduling conflicts with the reconstruction of the stadium, Ireland decided not to host any matches.[6]
Two Pool C matches are being held in Scotland, at Edinburgh's Murrayfield. Controversy arose in late 2004 when some media outlets speculated that the Scotland Rugby Union were going to sell off their matches. The idea surfaced again almost a year later, with the SRU speaking about the issue.[6] Wales expressed interest in acquiring Scotland's allocation of matches if they were to withdraw.[7] It was confirmed in April 2006 that Scotland will be hosting the games after all. There is a substantial increase in the overall capacity of stadiums compared to the 2003 Rugby World Cup, as the smallest venue at the 2007 tournament will be 33,900. The French venues are the same as those used for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
| City | Country | Stadium | Capacity | Further reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Denis (Paris) | France | Stade de France | 80,000 | Overview |
| Cardiff | Wales | Millennium Stadium | 74,500 | Overview |
| Edinburgh | Scotland | Murrayfield | 67,500 | Overview |
| Marseille | France | Stade Vélodrome | 60,000 | Overview |
| Paris | France | Parc des Princes | 49,000 | Overview |
| Lens | France | Stade Félix Bollaert | 41,800 | Overview |
| Lyon | France | Stade Gerland | 41,200 | Overview |
| Nantes | France | Stade de la Beaujoire | 38,500 | Overview |
| Toulouse | France | Stadium de Toulouse | 37,000 | Overview |
| Saint-Étienne | France | Stade Geoffroy-Guichard | 36,000 | Overview |
| Bordeaux | France | Stade Chaban-Delmas | 34,500 | Overview |
| Montpellier | France | Stade de la Mosson | 33,900 | Overview |
Tickets and sponsorship
Tickets for the Rugby World Cup were broken up into three phases. The first phase were released in November 2005, when members of the European rugby community, such as officials, players and so on were given the opportunity for various packages. Upon the release of the second phase ticketing scheme, more than 100,000 tickets were sold in the first ten hours of release.[8] In early 2006, it was reported that 800,000 of the 1.6 million tickets had already been sold, on 6th September 2006 the one millionth ticket was sold,[9]. The remaining tickets were released in phase three in November 2006, being individual tickets and tickets to the semi-finals to an 'unprecedented demand'.[10]
The Worldwide partners for the tournment are Société Générale, GMF, Électricité de France, Peugeot, Visa and SNCF, [11] and official sponsors include Heineken, Vediorbis and Capgemini.[12] Gilbert will be providing the tournament balls, the Gilbert Synergie match ball will be used throughout the tournament. This continues Gilbert's involvement with the World Cup; providing the Barbarian (1995), Revolution (1999) and Xact (2003) balls in the past.[13]
Format
The competition will be contested over 44 days between 20 different nations, over 48 fixtures. The tournament commences on September 7, at Stade de France between hosts France and Argentina. The tournament culminates at the same venue on October 20 for the final to decide who wins the Webb Ellis Cup. The 20 nations are split up into four pools of five teams, known as A through to D. Classification within each pool is based on the following scoring schedule:
- Four points for a win.
- Two points for a draw.
- No points for a loss.
- One bonus point is awarded in each of the following instances:
- A team scores four or more tries, regardless of the match result.
- A team loses by seven points (a converted try) or less.
Each pool has two quarter-finalists (automatic qualifiers) from the 2003 tournament, with the other three places filled through qualification. Each nation play their pool oppostion once, in total, each nation will have four fixtures in the pool stages. The winners and runners-up of each of the four pools advance to the quarter-finals.
The quarter-finalists will also gain entry to the 2011 tournament in New Zealand. Pool winners are drawn against opposite pool runners-up in the quarter-finals, for example the winner of Pool A faces the runner up of Pool B, and the winner of Pool B face the runner-up of Pool A. The whole finals stage adopts a knock-out format, and the winners of the quarter-finals advance to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finalists advance to the final, and the runners-up will contest a third/fourth place play-off the day before the final.
Pool stages
Pool A
Team Won Drawn Lost For Against BP Points Template:ENGru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:SAMru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:RSAru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:USAru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Repechage 2
Template:TONru or
Template:KORru0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pool B
Team Won Drawn Lost For Against BP Points Template:AUSru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:CANru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:FIJru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:JAPru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:WALru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pool C
Team Won Drawn Lost For Against BP Points Template:NZru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:ITAru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:ROMru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:SCOru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Repechage 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pool D
Team Won Drawn Lost For Against BP Points Template:ARGru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:FRAru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:GEOru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:IRLru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Template:NAMru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Knock-out stages
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| October 6 - Stade Vélodrome, Marseille | ||||||||||
| Winner Pool B | ||||||||||
| October 13 - Stade de France, Saint-Denis | ||||||||||
| Runners-up Pool A | ||||||||||
| October 6 - Millennium Stadium, Cardiff | ||||||||||
| Winner pool C | ||||||||||
| October 20 - Stade de France, Saint-Denis | ||||||||||
| Runners-up Pool D | ||||||||||
| October 7 - Stade Vélodrome, Marseille | ||||||||||
| Winner pool A | ||||||||||
| October 14 - Stade de France, Saint-Denis | ||||||||||
| Runners-up Pool B | ||||||||||
| October 7 - Stade de France, Saint-Denis | ||||||||||
| Third place | ||||||||||
| Winner pool D | ||||||||||
| October 19 - Parc des Princes, Paris | ||||||||||
| Runners-up Pool C | ||||||||||
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third/fourth place playoff
Final
See also
References
- ^ "England to launch bid for 2007". qru.com.au. Retrieved 7 October.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "World Cup bidding process underway". brumbies.com.au. Retrieved 7 October.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "IRB clarifies World Cup bid situation". rugby.com.au. Retrieved 7 October.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "France wins right to host 2007 Rugby World Cup". rugbywa.com.au. Retrieved 7 October.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "IRB scraps Asian World Cup qualifiers in Sri Lanka". lankabusinessonline.com. Retrieved 27 October.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ a b "Scotland looks to give up World cup matches at Murrayfield". worldcupweb.com. Retrieved 21 April.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Scots could disrupt World cup hosting plans". worldcupweb.com. Retrieved 21 April.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Rush For Rugby World Cup Tickets". xtramsn.co.nz. Retrieved 22 April.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "One millionth RWC ticket sold". therugbyworldcup.co.uk. Retrieved 7 September.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Unprecedented demand for RWC 2007 tickets". rugbyworldcup.com. Retrieved 22 November.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "RWC 2007 Worldwide Partners". rugbyworldcup.com. Retrieved 24 November.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "RWC 2007 Sponsors". rugbyworldcup.com. Retrieved 24 November.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Rugby World Cup 2007". gilbertrugby.com. Retrieved 7 October.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help)
External links
- Official
- Rugbyworldcup.com
- France2007.fr
- France2007.fr Template:Fr
- IRB.com International Rugby Board official site.
- Rth07.com Official travel and hospitality site.
- England Rugby Travel Official Travel Agent.
- Prestige Experience Official hospitality agent.
- News and resources