Although France are the official hosts of the sixth Rugby World Cup to be staged next September and October in ten French towns and cities, the French Rugby Union did not have quite the capacity to stage every match. Of the 43 games involving 20 countries, held over 44 days, 3 will be played in Cardiff and two in Edinburgh.



Both Wales and Scotland gained automatic qualification for this year’s tournament by reaching the quarterfinals four years ago, along with Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France (as hosts) and the reigning champions, England. Other countries had to qualify the hard way, emerging from the 90 nations that took part in regional qualifying competitions, which began as far back as 2004.



The other teams to qualify are Argentina, Canada, Fiji, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Namibia, Rumania, Samoa and the United States. For the final two places, Tonga play Korea on a neutral ground while Morocco meet Portugal home and away this month.

Four years ago Jonny Wilkinson's late drop goal gave England a memorable 20-17 extra-time victory over Australia in the final. After a disastrous run of defeats, it will be astonishing if England get beyond the quarterfinals this year, but with home advantage, France has high hopes of at least reaching the final in Paris, in front of a capacity crowd at the 50,000-seat Parc des Princes. 

www.rugbyworldcup.com
www.france2007.fr

World Cup venues