2003 Rugby Union World Cup

The 2003 Rugby Union World Cup was the fifth world cup in rugby union history. It was won by England. Originally planned to be played in Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World Cup Limited.

Review of the Tournament

The pre-event favourites were England and New Zealand, with France, defending champions Australia and South Africa all expected to make strong showings.

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Group stage

Early in the competition there was some criticism in the Australian media of mismatches when "minnow" countries were crushed by the rugby superpowers by 60 points or more. On the other hand, Japan, not a favoured team, acquitted themselves well in their opening matches against Scotland and France, although eventually being defeated. There were also reports of the South Pacific island countries of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa being handicapped through several of their players who play abroad being warned that their contracts would not be renewed if they played in the competition.

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In the event, the group stage of the competition played out largely as expected, with only some tension as to whether some of the "developing" nations would overtake some of the weaker major countries for the second quarterfinal qualification place in each pool -- in pool A, Argentina lost to Ireland by only one point, which would otherwise have carried them into the quarterfinals in Ireland's place; similarly in pool B Fiji lost out to Scotland by only two points, while Italy put up a good performance in pool D. Many matches were rather one-sided, but with a number of exciting matches - with Samoa giving England a fright before conceding points at the end of the match (however, this match could be deemded contoversial given the momentary appearance of a sixteenth player on the field by England which, given this not allowed player made a crucial tackle to stop a try, could have changed the match reults), the South Africa - England match was a classic before England asserted themselves at the end of the match (and showing that the reorganisation of domestic rugby in South Africa since 1997 has tended to weaken the Springboks). Similarly the Australia - Ireland match was a classic match and Wales' performance against New Zealand demonstrated that the All Blacks, who were previously thought to be undefeatable, had a weak defence, while also showing that Wales were reviving from the long decline since their glory days of the 1970s.

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