The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match was played at Ajinomoto Stadium in Chōfu, Tokyo, with the final match being held at International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama. This was the first time that the tournament had taken place in Asia and outside the traditional Tier 1 rugby nations.
The tournament saw the first cancellation of matches at the Rugby World Cup with Typhoon Hagibis affecting three matches due to the expected impact on safety that the typhoon would have.
South Africa beat England 32−12 in the final to claim their third title, equalling New Zealand's record. In doing so, South Africa became the first team to win the title after losing a match in the pool stage. The two time defending champions, New Zealand, finished third after defeating Wales in the bronze final.
Host country selection
The International Rugby Board (IRB) requested that any members wishing to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup and/or the 2019 event should indicate their interest by 15 August 2008, though no details had to be provided at that stage. A record 10 unions responded, with the 2019 tournament of interest to nine nations. Russia initially announced plans to bid for both events, but withdrew both in February 2009 in favour of what proved to be a successful bid for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Australia withdrew from the bidding process on 6 May 2009.
The three potential hosts – Italy, Japan and South Africa – were announced on 8 May 2009. At a special meeting held in Dublin on 28 July 2009, the IRB confirmed that England would be hosts in 2015 and Japan in 2019, with the approval of the tournament organisers Rugby World Cup Ltd (RWC Ltd), going in favour 16–10.
Venues
The IRB (which was renamed World Rugby in November 2014), RWC Ltd, the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) and host organisers Japan 2019 went through a process of asking for expressions of interest and meeting with and explaining game hosting requirements to interested parties from late 2013. In May 2014, it was announced that 22 municipal and prefectural organisations across Japan had expressed interest. Those organisations were asked to enter formal bids by 31 October 2014. On 5 November, organisers announced that 14 bids had been received. Hong Kong and Singapore had expressed interest in hosting some of the matches and were included in Japan's bid, but were not among the 14 stadiums announced in 2014. Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, venue for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final and Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium, also a World Cup venue, decided not to bid.
Several changes to the venues submitted in the JRFU's original 2009 bid were made. The JRFU's own Chichibunomiya Stadium in Tokyo, suitable for smaller interest games in the capital, was not included in the plan. The JRFU selected the larger and more modern 50,000-seat Nagai multi-purpose stadium as its preferred venue for games in Osaka, though East Osaka City, which had taken over the Hanazono Rugby Stadium from long-time corporate owners Kintetsu in April 2015, submitted a joint bid with Osaka Municipality, intending to refurbish the stadium. Kamaishi, Hamamatsu, Kyoto, Ōita, Nagasaki and Kumamoto were also not part of the JRFU's bid. While the bids included venues from a broad area of Japan, two areas were not involved in hosting: Hokushin'etsu (Hokuriku and Kōshin'etsu regions), which includes the city of Niigata; and the Chūgoku region, which includes Hiroshima and the nearby island of Shikoku. No city in Chūgoku hosted games at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but Hiroshima did host games in the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
The new National Stadium in Tokyo being constructed for the 2020 Summer Olympics was expected to be the primary venue of the tournament. However, the original plans were scrapped and rebid in 2015 due to criticism over its design and increasing costs. As a consequence, it would no longer be completed in time. The fixtures assigned to the stadium were re-located, with the opening match moved to Ajinomoto Stadium and the final moved to Nissan Stadium in Yokohama.
YokohamaHamamatsu(Fukuroi)Tokyo(Chōfu)Nagoya(Toyota City)SapporoInternational Stadium YokohamaShizuoka Stadium EcopaTokyo StadiumCity of Toyota StadiumSapporo DomeCapacity: 72,327Capacity: 50,889Capacity: 49,970Capacity: 45,000Capacity: 41,410ŌitaKobeOita StadiumKobe Misaki StadiumCapacity: 40,000Capacity: 30,132Osaka(Higashiosaka)KumamotoKumagayaFukuokaKamaishiHanazono Rugby StadiumKumamoto StadiumKumagaya Rugby StadiumFukuoka Hakatanom ori StadiumKamaishi Recovery Memorial StadiumCapacity: 24,100Capacity: 32,000Capacity: 24,000Capacity: 20,049Capacity: 16,020
Qualifying
The top three teams from the pools at the 2015 World Cup received an automatic spot, with the remaining eight teams coming from the qualifying series around the world. Six of the remaining eight spots available were filled by regional qualifiers with the additional two spots being filled in play-off. Qualifying was split into five regional groups; Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
On 1 July 2017, the United States became the first team to qualify after defeating Canada in the two-leg match to qualify as America 1. The following two weeks saw Fiji and Tonga booking their spots as Oceania 1 and 2 respectively. Samoa later confirmed their spot as the third Oceanic team with a win over Germany in a two-legged tie the following year. In January 2018, Uruguay became the fourth team to qualify with a 10-point victory over Canada across the two legs to book a spot as Americas 2.
In March, Romania initially qualified to take the spot as Europe 1. But after complaints from the Spanish into an investigation of ineligible players, it was deemed that Romania, Spain and Belgium all broke the eligibility rules and were deducted points which meant Russia qualified for the World Cup while Germany headed to the play-off against Samoa. In August, Namibia became the final team to qualify from the continental tournaments after defeating Kenya in the final round of the Rugby Africa Gold Cup. The final spot was decided by a repechage tournament in Marseille in November 2018, which was won by Canada after winning all three of their games.
+ Qualifying teamsRegionTeamQualificationmethodPrevious Previous best resultWorldRankingAfricaTop 3 in 2015 RWC pool6Champions 4Africa 15Pool stage23Americas NorthAmericas 17Pool stage13Final Qualifier7Quarter-finals22AsiaHosts8Pool stage10EuropeTop 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Champions 3Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Runners-up 8Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool4Pool stage12Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Quarter-finals 1Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Pool stage14Europe 11Pool stage20Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Fourth place 7Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Third place 5OceaniaTop 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Champions 6Oceania 17Quarter-finals 9Top 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Champions 2Play-off winner7Quarter-finals 16Oceania 27Pool stage15SudaméricaTop 3 in 2015 RWC pool8Third place 11Americas 23Pool stage19
Draw
The pool draw took place on 10 May 2017, in Kyoto. The draw was moved from its traditional place of December in the year following the previous World Cup, after the November internationals, so that nations had a longer period of time to increase their world rankings ahead of the draw.
The seeding system from previous Rugby World Cups was retained with the 12 automatic qualifiers from 2015 being allocated to their respective bands based on their World Rugby Rankings on the day of the draw:
Band 1: The four highest-ranked teams Band 2: The next four highest-ranked teams Band 3: The final four directly qualified teams
The remaining two bands were made up of the eight qualifying teams, with allocation to each band being based on the previous Rugby World Cup playing strength: Band 4: – Oceania 1, Americas 1, Europe 1, Africa 1 Band 5: – Oceania 2, Americas 2, Play-off Winner, Repechage Winner
This meant the 20 teams, qualified and qualifiers, were seeded thus (world ranking as of 10 May 2017): Band 1Band 2Band 3Band 4Band 5
The draw saw a representative randomly draw a ball from a pot; the first drawn ball went to Pool A, the second Pool B, the third Pool C and the fourth Pool D.
Squads
Each team submitted a squad of 31 players for the tournament, the same as the 2015 tournament. These squads were to be submitted to World Rugby with the deadline being 8 September with the United States being the last team to reveal their squad on 6 September.
Match officials
World Rugby named the following 12 referees, seven assistant referees and four television match officials to handle the 48 matches:
Referees Wayne Barnes (England) Luke Pearce (England) Jérôme Garcès (France) Romain Poite (France) Pascal Gaüzère (France) Mathieu Raynal (France) Nigel Owens (Wales) Jaco Peyper (South Africa) Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand) Paul Williams (New Zealand) Nic Berry (Australia) Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant referees Matthew Carley (England) Karl Dickson (England) Andrew Brace (Ireland) Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand) Federico Anselmi (Argentina) Shuhei Kubo (Japan) Alexandre Ruiz (France)
Television match officials Graham Hughes (England) Rowan Kitt (England) Ben Skeen (New Zealand) Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony took place at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo on 20 September 2019 at 18:30 (JST). The ceremony featured a showcase of traditional and modern Japanese culture, as well as the culture of rugby union, and told the story of the evolution of rugby union in Japan. New Zealand's Richie McCaw, who captained the All Blacks to the World Cup title in 2015, performed a ceremonial handover of the Webb Ellis Cup. Six jet aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse aerobatic team flew over the stadium. Kiyoe Yoshioka of Japanese pop-rock band Ikimono-gakari sang World in Union, the official song of the Rugby World Cup. The tournament was officially declared open by Fumihito, Prince Akishino of Japan; both he and World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont gave speeches at the end of the ceremony, with Beaumont saying:
Pool stage
The 20 teams are divided into four pools of five teams. Each pool is a single round-robin of 10 games, in which each team plays one match against each of the other teams in the same pool. Teams are awarded four league points for a win, two for a draw and none for a defeat. A team scoring four tries in a match is awarded a bonus point, as is a team that loses by seven points or fewer – both bonus points are awarded if both situations apply. The teams finishing in the top two of each pool advance to the quarter-finals. The top three teams of each pool received automatic qualification to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Tie-breaking criteria If two or more teams are tied on match points, the following tiebreakers apply:
The winner of the match between the two teams Difference between points scored for and points scored against in all pool matches Difference between tries scored for and tries scored against in all pool matches Points scored in all pool matches Most tries scored in all pool matches Official World Rugby Rankings as of 14 October 2019
If three teams were tied on points, the above criteria would be used to decide first place in the pool and then the criteria would be used again (starting from criterion 1) to decide second place in the pool.
Pool A