The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will remain a 20-team competition, the International Rugby Board (IRB) announced on Friday.
Before this year’s World Cup, where South Africa beat England in October’s final in Paris, plans for a reduction from 20 teams to 16 were being considered because of the numerous mismatches that had taken place in the previous five editions.
However, one of the outstanding features of the recently concluded 2007 World Cup in France was the way in which many unheralded sides added to the spectacle of the competition with, for example, Georgia coming close to a huge upset win over Ireland.
Many of the so-called ”junior” nations said a reduction in World Cup numbers would set back the development of their rugby and leave them with little incentive to improve.
The decision to stick with the 20-team format was taken at a special meeting of the IRB Council, which itself followed a three-day global rugby forum held by the governing body in Woking, south of London.
”The developing nations at Rugby World Cup [RWC] 2007 have produced significantly enhanced performances since RWC 2003,” said IRB chairperson Dr Syd Millar.
”This is a direct result of the global £30-million IRB strategic investment programme that was established in 2005.”
”The successful New Zealand tender bid for RWC 2011 was based on 20 teams. At the council meeting the motion maintaining the number of teams at RWC at 20 was proposed by New Zealand council member Graham Mourie.
”The IRB is very confident that the tournament will be a huge success,” Millar added.
The playing window for RWC 2011 in New Zealand is September-October 2011, with the final taking place on the weekend of October 22-23 2011.
An IRB statement added that the qualification process for the eight vacant places was being reviewed.
However, the IRB had already announced that the number of automatic qualifiers would increase from eight to 12 places.
Therefore, South Africa, England, Argentina, France, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Fiji, Wales, Ireland, Tonga and Italy have automatically qualified as the top three teams in their respective 2007 World Cup pools. — AFP
