The 1999 Rugby World Cup which was hosted by Wales, broke new ground as for the first time the big eight nations did not qualify automatically. Only the champions, the runners-up, the third place play-off winners from 1995 and the host nation were afforded that luxury. This meant that South Africa, New Zealand, France and Wales were assured of their places in the expanded 20-team tournament with 65 nations taking part in the qualification process for the other 16 places.

Another innovation for the 1999 tournament, which also featured matches in England, France, Scotland and Ireland, was the introduction of a repechage, a second chance for teams that had finished runners-up in each qualifying zone. Uruguay and Tonga were the first nations to profit from the repechage, and took their places alongside fellow qualifiers Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Argentina, Fiji, Romania, Canada, Namibia, Japan, Spain and the United States.

These 20 nations were split into five pools of four, a scenario that necessitated a quarter-final play-off round involving the five runners-up and best third placed team to decide who would join the pool winners in the last eight. The Millennium Stadium then saw Australia take on the French in an eagerly anticipated final. France had of course reached the inaugural final in 1987, but, just as on that occasion, they simply had nothing left as Australia became the first nation to win the World Cup twice, with a 35-12 triumph.

Venues

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Venues
City	Stadium	Capacity
Saint-Denis	Stade de France	80,000
London	Twickenham Stadium	75,000
Cardiff	Millennium Stadium	74,500
Edinburgh	Murrayfield Stadium	67,500
Glasgow	Hampden Park	52,500
Dublin	Lansdowne Road	49,250
Lens	Stade Félix Bollaert	41,800
Bordeaux	Stade Lescure	34,327
Huddersfield	McAlpine Stadium	28,000
Toulouse	Stadium de Toulouse	27,000
Béziers	Stade de la Méditerranée	25,000
Bristol	Ashton Gate	21,500
Leicester	Welford Road Stadium	16,500
Wrexham	Racecourse Ground	15,500
Limerick	Thomond Park	13,500
Belfast	Ravenhill Stadium	12,500
Llanelli	Stradey Park	10,800
Galashiels	Netherdale	6,000

Wales won the right to host the World Cup in 1999. The centrepiece venue for the tournament was the Millennium Stadium, built on the site of the old National Stadium at Cardiff Arms Park at a cost of £126 million from private investment. Other venues in Wales included the Racecourse Ground and Stradey Park. An agreement was reached so that other unions in the Five Nations Championship (England, France, Ireland and Scotland also hosted matches.

Venues in England included Twickenham, the home of the Rugby Football Union, Ashton Gate and Welford Road, all rugby union venues. The multi-use sports stadium in Huddersfield, McAlpine Stadium was also used. Scottish venues included Murrayfield Stadium, the home of the Scottish Rugby Union, Hampden Park, the home of the Scottish Football Association and the smallest venue in the 1999 tournament, Netherdale in the Scottish borders. Venues in Ireland included Lansdowne Road, the traditional home of the Irish Rugby Football Union, Ravenhill, the Northern Ireland IRFU owned venue and Thomond Park. France used five venues, the most of any nation, including the French national stadium Stade de France which hosted the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Qualification

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See 1999 Rugby World Cup qualifying

The following 20 teams, shown by region, qualified for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Of the 20 teams, only four of those places were automatically allocated and did not have to play any qualification matches. These went to the champions, runners-up and the third placed nations at the 1995 and the tournament host, Wales. A record 65 nations from five continents were therefore involved in the qualification process designed to fill the remaining 16 spots.

• Africa
  • (automatic qualifier; champion in 1995)

• Americas

• Oceania
  • (automatic qualifier; runner-up in 1995)

• Asia
  • }px]]}} Japan

• Europe
  • (automatic qualifier; third place in 1995)
  • (automatic qualifier; host nation)

Results

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Pool A

{| class="wikitable"

!width=165|Team Won Drawn Lost For Against Points 3132356 21120584 1242972 3181220

Pool B

{| class="wikitable"

!width=165|Team Won Drawn Lost For Against Points 3176286 21184474 12481712 3351960

Pool C

{| class="wikitable"

!width=165|Team Won Drawn Lost For Against Points 3108526 21124684 12114822 3281860

Pool D

{| class="wikitable"

!width=165|Team Won Drawn Lost For Against Points 21118714 2183514 2197724 3361400

Pool E

{| class="wikitable"

!width=165|Team Won Drawn Lost For Against Points 3135316 21100454 12501262 3521350

Knock-out stages

=Second round playoffs

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=Quarter-finals

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=Semi-finals

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=Third/fourth place playoff

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=Final

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Post-final

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Parades were held in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Each city presenting the keys to the city and a special plaque to the Wallabies’ team. The Sydney celebration was the largest, with tens of thousands of people lining the street for the ticker tape affair, whilst streamers were thrown from office buildings.

External links

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• Rugbyworldcup.com
• 1999 Rugby World Cup on Worldcupweb.com
• 1999 Rugby World Cup on SAweb.co.za

1999 in sports | Rugby World Cup | Sports festivals hosted in England | Sports festivals hosted in France | Sports festivals hosted in Scotland | Sports festivals hosted in Wales

1999 Rugby Wêreldbeker | Coupe du monde de rugby 1999 | Coppa del Mondo di rugby (1999) | Verdensmesterskapet i rugby union 1999