1999 Rugby World Cup has part(s) 1999 Rugby World Cup pool stage
Pools and format
With the expansion of the Rugby World Cup from 16 to 20 teams an unusual and complex format was used with the teams split into five pools of four teams with each team playing each other in their pool once.Pool A was played in Scotland
Pool B was played in England
Pool C was played in France
Pool D was played in the principal host nation Wales
Pool E was played in IrelandPoints system
The points system that was used in the pool stage was unchanged from both 1991 and 1995:Squads
Referees
Pool stage
The tournament began on 1 October 1999 in the newly built Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with Wales beating Argentina in a hard-fought game 23–18 to get their campaign off to a positive start. The Pool stage of the tournament played out as was widely expected with the Tri Nations teams of New Zealand (who inflected a massive 101–3 win against Italy at the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield), South Africa and Australia all winning their pools easily without losing a single game. For the then Five Nations Championship teams who all played their pool matches in their own countries it was a case of mixed fortunes with France winning their pool without losing a game. Host Wales also won their pool, though they suffered 31–38 defeat at the hands of Samoa in front of a home crowd at the Millennium Stadium. However, as expected England, Ireland and Scotland all finished second in their pools and were forced to try to qualify for the quarter-finals via the play-offs alongside fellow runners-up Samoa and Fiji, and Argentina as the best third placed side from all five pools, having been the only third-placed side to win two matches (against Samoa and Japan). Indeed, Argentina had finished level with Wales and Samoa on 7 points each in the group stages, and could only be separated by "total points scored": playing and winning their final match against Japan, they had the chance to overtake either of Samoa or Wales, but were 14 points short of overtaking Samoa's total score and a further 18 points short of Wales.
contains comprises includes consists of has components