2007 Rugby World Cup

The Eiffel Tower in Paris decorated with a giant rugby ball for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Both England and France bid to host the tournament.[1][2] The tender document for the 2007 bidding process was due out on 31 October 2001. Both England and France were invited to re-submit their plans.[3] 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 said "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".[3] England's bids included a two-tier tournament and altering the structure of the qualifying tournament and France had a bid in September/October.[3]

It was announced in April 2003 that France had won the right to host the tournament.[4] The tournament was moved to the proposed September–October dates with the tournament structure remaining as it was.[4] It was also announced that ten French cities would be hosting games, with the final at the Stade de France.[4] 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] French Sports Minister Jean-François Lamour said that "The organisation of this World Cup will shine over all of France because ten French towns have the privilege of organising matches and to be in the world's spotlight."[4] French cities to host games were Bordeaux, Lens, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, St. Etienne, Toulouse and Paris, and it was also announced that the final would be at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.[4]

Nations participating in qualifying competition and those that have qualified automatically; Asia (purple), Africa (orange), Americas (green), Europe (blue) and Oceania (yellow). In total, over 90 nations took part.

The eight quarter-finalists from the 2003 World Cup all received automatic entry, with the other 12 nations coming from qualifying series around the world. Ten of the 20 positions available in the tournament were filled by regional qualifiers, with an additional two being filled by repechage qualification. The qualifying tournament was divided into five regional groups; Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.[5] Qualifying matches began in 2004 and were completed in early 2007. Including the automatic qualifiers, over 90 nations were in qualifying contention for the final tournament.

In July 2005, both Samoa and Fiji were confirmed as the qualifiers from Oceania, as Oceania 1 and 2 respectively.[6] In July of the following year, Argentina qualified as Americas 1 by defeating Uruguay 26–0 in Buenos Aires.[7] Americas 2 was filled in August when Canada defeated the United States 56–7 in Newfoundland.[8] The United States went on to qualify as Americas 3 after beating Uruguay in a two-legged tie in early October.[9] That month also saw Italy qualify as Europe 1 after defeating 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.[10]

Namibia qualified for their third consecutive World Cup after they earned their spot in France by defeating Morocco over two legs in November.[11] In late 2006, it was announced that the IRB had withdrawn Colombo as the venue of the final Asian qualifying tournament due to security problems.[12] Japan won the only Asian allocation after the tournament was moved to Hong Kong.[13] Georgia was 14 points the better of Portugal over two legs to claim the last European place.[13] Tonga qualified through repechage after defeating Korea.[14] The final spot went to Portugal, joining Pool C after beating Uruguay 24–23 on aggregate. Portugal's qualification was the only change in the 20-team roster from the 2003 World Cup, replacing Uruguay, becoming the only wholly amateur team to qualify.

The 2007 World Cup was hosted by France, with additional venues at Edinburgh and Cardiff.

France won the right to host the 2007 World Cup in 2003, and it was subsequently announced that four matches would be held in Wales, at Cardiff's 74,500-seat Millennium Stadium (two Pool B games involving Wales, the match between Fiji and Canada, and a quarter-final). Ireland was to have hosted matches at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, but opted out because the stadium was being redeveloped.[15]

Two of Scotland's Pool C matches were played at Murrayfield Stadium in Scotland. The Scottish Rugby Union was reportedly having doubts in early 2006 about hosting these games and whether Scotland would generate enough market demand,[15][16] but confirmed in April 2006 that the games would be played at Murrayfield. In the end, the Scotland v. New Zealand match failed to sell out, and the stadium was less than half-full for the Scotland v. Romania match.

There was a substantial increase in the overall capacity of stadiums compared to the 2003 Rugby World Cup – the smallest venue at the 2007 tournament could seat 33,900 people. The French venues were the same as those used for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Around 6,000 volunteers helped to organise the competition.[17]

Although the 2007 tournament was the first to be hosted primarily by France, a number of matches during the 1991 and 1999 tournaments were played in France. In 1991, matches in Pool D (which included France) were played in Béziers, Bayonne, Grenoble, Toulouse, Brive and Agen, while Parc des Princes and Stadium Lille-Metropole each hosted a quarter-final. Similarly, in 1999, fixtures in Pool C (which included France) were played in Béziers, Bordeaux and Toulouse,[18] Stade Félix-Bollaert was the venue for one of the quarter-final play-offs, and the Stade de France hosted a quarter-final.[18]

Saint-Denis	Cardiff	Edinburgh	Marseille
Stade de France	Millennium Stadium	Murrayfield	Stade Vélodrome
Capacity: 80,000	Capacity: 74,500	Capacity: 67,144	Capacity: 59,500
Paris	Lens	Lyon	Nantes
Parc des Princes	Stade Félix-Bollaert	Stade de Gerland	Stade de la Beaujoire
Capacity: 47,870	Capacity: 41,400	Capacity: 41,100	Capacity: 38,100
Toulouse	Saint-Étienne	Bordeaux	Montpellier
Stadium de Toulouse	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard	Stade Chaban-Delmas	Stade de la Mosson
Capacity: 35,700	Capacity: 35,650	Capacity: 34,440	Capacity: 33,900

The official Rugby World Cup shop in Paris

Ticket sales for the Rugby World Cup were broken up into three phases. The first phase was 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.[19] The remaining tickets – individual tickets and tickets to the semi-finals – were released in phase three in November 2006. In June 2007, it was announced that 2 million of the 2.4 million tickets had been sold in advance of the tournament.[20]

The Worldwide partners for the tournament were Société Générale, GMF, Électricité de France, Peugeot, Visa and SNCF,[21] and official sponsors include Heineken, Vediorbis, Capgemini, Orange, Toshiba and Emirates.[22] Gilbert provided the tournament balls, with the Gilbert Synergie match ball used throughout the tournament. This continued Gilbert's involvement with the World Cup, the company having provided the Barbarian (1995), Revolution (1999) and Xact (2003) balls in the past.[23] Along with Gilbert, the official suppliers were Adidas, Coca-Cola, Clifford Chance, Goodyear and McDonald's.[24] The host broadcaster for the event was TF1.[25]

Each country was allowed a squad of 30 players for the tournament. These squads were to be submitted to the International Rugby Board by a deadline of 14 August 2007.[26] Once the squad was submitted a player could be replaced if injured, but would not be allowed to return to the squad.

The 2007 Rugby World Cup officials were appointed in late-April 2007, with 12 referees and 13 touch judges being chosen to officiate during the pool stage. In the knockout stage the 12 referees also acted as touch judges, with referee appointments being based on performance from previous matches and selection for neutrality. Referees came from seven different nationalities and three of them made their Rugby World Cup debut. The touch judges came from 10 countries. Tony Spreadbury of England officiated the opening game between France and Argentina at the Stade de France[27] and Irishman Alain Rolland refereed the final.

Referees Country Name  Australia Stuart Dickinson  England Wayne Barnes  England Tony Spreadbury  England Chris White  France Joël Jutge  Ireland Alan Lewis  Ireland Alain Rolland  New Zealand Paul Honiss  New Zealand Steve Walsh  South Africa Marius Jonker  South Africa Jonathan Kaplan  Wales Nigel Owens

Touch judges Country Name[28]  Argentina Federico Cuesta  Australia Paul Marks  England Dave Pearson  France Christophe Berdos  Italy Carlo Damasco  Ireland Simon McDowell  New Zealand Lyndon Bray  New Zealand Kelvin Deaker  New Zealand Bryce Lawrence  Scotland Malcolm Changleng  South Africa Craig Joubert  South Africa Mark Lawrence  Wales Hugh Watkins

The competition was contested over 44 days between 20 different nations, over 48 fixtures. The tournament began on 7 September at the Stade de France with a match between the host nation, France, and Argentina. The tournament culminated at the same venue on 20 October for the final between England and South Africa.

All times French time (UTC+2)

Pool A

Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/- BP Pts  South Africa 4 4 0 0 24 189 47 +142 3 19  England 4 3 0 1 11 108 88 +20 2 14  Tonga 4 2 0 2 9 89 96 −7 1 9  Samoa 4 1 0 3 5 69 143 −74 1 5  United States 4 0 0 4 7 61 142 −81 1 1

SAM RSA TGA USA England 44–22 0–36 36–20 28–10 Samoa – 7–59 15–19 25–21 South Africa – – 30–25 64–15 Tonga – – – 25–15

Pool B

Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/- BP Pts  Australia 4 4 0 0 30 215 41 +174 4 20  Fiji 4 3 0 1 14 114 136 −22 3 15  Wales 4 2 0 2 23 168 105 +63 4 12  Japan 4 0 1 3 7 64 210 −146 1 3  Canada 4 0 1 3 6 51 120 −69 0 2

CAN FJI JPN WAL Australia 37–6 55–12 91–3 32–20 Canada – 16–29 12–12 17–42 Fiji – – 35–31 38–34 Japan – – – 18–72

Pool C

Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/- BP Pts  New Zealand 4 4 0 0 46 309 35 +274 4 20  Scotland 4 3 0 1 14 116 66 +50 2 14  Italy 4 2 0 2 8 85 117 −32 1 9  Romania 4 1 0 3 5 40 161 −121 1 5  Portugal 4 0 0 4 4 38 209 −171 1 1

NZL POR ROM SCO Italy 14–76 31–5 24–18 16–18 New Zealand – 108–13 85–8 40–0 Portugal – – 10–14 10–56 Romania – – – 0–42

Pool D

Team Pld W D L TF PF PA +/- BP Pts  Argentina 4 4 0 0 16 143 33 +110 2 18  France 4 3 0 1 24 188 37 +151 3 15  Ireland 4 2 0 2 9 64 82 −18 1 9  Georgia 4 1 0 3 5 50 111 −61 1 5  Namibia 4 0 0 4 3 30 212 −182 0 0

FRA GEO IRE NAM Argentina 17–12 33–3 30–15 63–3 France – 64–7 25–3 87–10 Georgia – – 10–14 30–0 Ireland – – – 32–17

The tournament's top point scorer was South African Percy Montgomery, who scored 105 points. Bryan Habana scored the most tries, eight in total.

Points	Name	Team	Pos	Apps	Tries	Con	Pen	Drop
105	Percy Montgomery	South Africa	FB	7	2	22	17	0
91	Felipe Contepomi	Argentina	CE	7	3	11	18	0
67	Jonny Wilkinson	England	FH	5	0	5	14	5
50	Nick Evans	New Zealand	FH/FB	4	2	20	0	0
47	Jean-Baptiste Élissalde	France	SH	7	1	12	6	0
46	Chris Paterson	Scotland	WG/FH	5	1	10	7	0
44	Pierre Hola	Tonga	FH	4	0	7	10	0
43	Lionel Beauxis	France	FH	6	1	7	8	0
42	Nicky Little	Fiji	FH	3	0	9	8	0
40	Dan Carter	New Zealand	FH	3	1	10	5	0
40	Matt Giteau	Australia	CE	4	3	8	3	0
40	Bryan Habana	South Africa	WG	7	8	0	0	0

• 2007 Rugby World Cup warm-up tests

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2007 Rugby World Cup.

• Official website of the 2007 Rugby World Cup (Archived)