In France, from 8 September to 28 October, twenty of the top 15-man rugby nations will compete to win the Webb Ellis Cup. Place to watch the international spectacle live, as well as the fixtures. This is about as huge as curtain-raising games go, featuring two of the finest teams in the world competing in front of an expected sell-out audience of 80,000.
Here is all the information you need to know before the championship game of rugby, which is soon to begin.
About Host
Prior to South Africa and Ireland’s bids. France, which hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2007, was chosen to host the event in 2017. It occurs at a time when the nation is in the sporting spotlight. Paris serving as the host city for the Olympics in 2014. 600,000 fans are expected to travel to France for the competition, according to the organizers, who revealed last year that a record 2.6 million tickets had been made available for the event. Nine distinct cities, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Saint-Etienne, and Toulouse, will host matches at nine different locations.
The opening match between France and the All Blacks, two quarterfinals, two semifinals, and the championship game will all be played at the Stade de France, with the Stade de Marseille serving as the only other site for knockout matches.
When to Start
On September 8th, France and New Zealand will square off to start the tournament. On Saturday, October 28, the championship game will be held. South Africa won the most recent tournament, which took place in Japan in 2019, defeating England in the championship game. They will be among the favorites this year as well, especially after thrashing New Zealand at Twickenham in their final warm-up game.
A formidable European challenge is anticipated, not least from France, which destroyed Australia in a pre-tournament warm-up, and Ireland, winners of the Six Nations Grand Slam, who have yet to perform at their best at a World Cup but destroyed England in a warm-up game.
Participating Teams
At the Rugby World Cup this year, a total of 20 nations will compete in four pools of five teams each. There are a lot of tournament veterans among the contending nations. The top-ranked teams in the world are Ireland, South Africa, the defending champion, France, and New Zealand, in that order; Australia, England, Argentina, Wales, and Scotland are all well-known competitors behind them.
While Italy, Georgia, Japan, Tonga, and Samoa have been fighting against – and occasionally defeating – the world’s greatest rugby-playing teams for decades, Fiji has had a strong build-up to the event, defeating England for the first time ever last month. Portugal, Uruguay, Namibia, and other top competitors have less experience and don’t appear likely to get past the pool round. After defeating the USA by one point over two qualifying games last year, Chile is the lone team making its World Cup debut.
World Cup Format
Each nation competes against the other groups’ teams once. The top two teams from each pool advance to the quarterfinals, where they face off in a knockout style. The champion of Pool B plays the runner-up of Pool A in the quarterfinal two. The top team from Pool A plays the runner-up in Pool B in the quarterfinal four. On the other side of the draw, Pools C and D (quarterfinals 1 and 3) experience the same thing.
The winner of the first quarterfinal plays the winner of the second quarterfinal. And the winner of the third quarterfinal plays the winner of the fourth quarterfinal in the semifinals. Additionally, a third-place playoff between the two unsuccessful semifinalists will take place on October 27.