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RUGBY

The Rugby World Cup is the premier international rugby union competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB), and is contested by the men's national teams. The inaugural tournament was held in 1987, hosted by both Australia and New Zealand, and is now contested every four years. The tournament is one of the largest international sporting competitions in the world.
The winners are awarded the William Webb Ellis Cup. William Webb Ellis was the Rugby School pupil who - according to popular myth - invented the game after picking up the ball during a game of association football. South Africa are the current World champions, having won the 2007 Rugby World Cup Final in France on 20 October 2007 with victory over England, the 2003 World Champions and current runners-up. The next Rugby World Cup is due to be contested in New Zealand in 2011.

Qualification

Main article: Rugby World Cup qualification
Qualifying tournaments were introduced for the second tournament, where eight of the sixteen places were contested in a twenty-four-nation tournament. The inaugura World Cup in 1987, did not involve any qualifying process; instead, the 16 places were automatically filled by seven eligible International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, now, International Rugby Board) member nations, and the rest by invitation.
The current format allows for twelve of the twenty available positions to be filled by automatic qualification, as the teams who finish third or better in the group (pool) stages of the previous tournament enter its successor (where they will be seeded) . The qualification system for the remaining eight places will be region-based with Europe and the Americas allocated two qualifying places, Africa, Asia and Oceania one place each, with the last place determined by a play-off .
The old format (2003 & 2007) allowed for eight of the twenty available positions to be filled by automatic qualification, as the eight quarter finalists of the previous tournament enter its successor. The remaining twelve positions were filled by continental qualifying tournaments. Positions were filled by three teams from the Americas, one from Asia, one from Africa, three from Europe and two from Oceania. Another two places were allocated for repechage. The first repechage place was determined by a match between the runners-up from the Africa and Europe qualifying tournaments, with that winner then playing the Americas runner-up to determine the place. The second repechage position was determined between the runners-up from the Asia and Oceania qualifiers

Tournament

The opening game of the 2003 competition; Argentina and Australia at Telstra Stadium in Sydney.
The current model features twenty nations competing over a month in the host nation(s).There are two stages, a group and a knock-out. Nations are divided into four pools, A through to D, of five nations each. The pool allocation system seeds teams ranked one to four from the previous tournament into A to D pools respectively. The other four automatic entrants—the losing quarter-finalists from the previous tournament—are drawn into pools at random.
The remaining positions in each pool are filled by the qualifiers. Nations play four pool games, playing their respective pool members once. A bonus points system is used during pool play. If two or more teams are level on points, a system of criteria is used to determine the higher rank; the sixth and final criterion decides the higher rank through the Official IRB World Rankings.
The winner (first position) and runner-up (second position) of each pool enters the knock-out stage.The knock-out stage consists of quarter- and semi-finals, and then the final. The winner of each pool is placed against a runner-up of a different pool in a quarter-final. The winner of each quarter-final goes on to the semi-finals, where the respective winners proceed to the final. Losers of the semi-finals contest for third place (called the 'Bronze Final'). Should a tie result during an event in the knock-out stages, the winner is determined through extra time. Should that fail, sudden death begins when the next team to score any points is declared with winner; as a last resort, a kicking competition is used

This information took from : http://en WikiProject_Rugby_union