2003 Rugby World Cup

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2003 Rugby World Cup
2003-10-10 - 2003-11-22
Host nation	Australia
No. of nations	20 (80 qualifying)
Champions	England
Runner-up	Australia
Matches played	48
Attendance	1,837,547 (38,282 per match)
Top scorer	Jonny Wilkinson (113)
Most tries	Doug Howlett (7) Mils Muliaina (7)
Preceded by	1999 Rugby World Cup
Succeeded by	2007 Rugby World Cup

The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth rugby union world cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World Cup Limited. The pre-event favourites were England and New Zealand, with France, South Africa and defending champions Australia all expected to make strong showings.

Venues

Australia won the right to host the World Cup in 2003 without the involvement of New Zealand after a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World Cup Limited. The overall stadium capacity was reduced from the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales.

The Adelaide Oval underwent a AUS$20 million redevelopment for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, financed entirely by the South Australian Cricket Association, with two new grandstands built adjacent to the Victor Richardson Gates. The Suncorp Stadium was a new AUS$280 million venue designed specifically for rugby, and was opened just before the start of the 2003 World Cup. The Central Coast Stadium was also a newly built venue, and opened in February 2000 at a cost of AUS$30 million.

Aussie Stadium was one of two venues in Sydney that were used for football during the 2000 Olympic Games. The other venue in Sydney was the Telstra Stadium which was the centrepiece of the 2000 Olympic Games. Formerly known as Stadium Australia, Telstra Stadium was built at a cost of over AUS$600 million and was the biggest stadium used in the 2003 World Cup. The only stadium with a retractable roof used was the Telstra Dome in Melbourne.

Qualification

The winners England.

Main article: 2003 Rugby World Cup qualifying

The following 20 teams, shown by region, qualified for the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Of the 20 teams, eight of those places were automatically filled by the teams that reached the quarter-final stages in 1999, including hosts and world champions Australia and did not have to play any qualification matches. A record 81 nations from five continents were involved in the qualification process designed to fill the remaining 12 spots, which began on 23 September 2000.

Squads

Main article: 2003 Rugby World Cup squads

Format

The teams were divided into four pools of five nations, with the top two in each pool moving on to the knock-out quarter-final stage. For the first time, a bonus point system was implemented in pool play. This system is identical to that long used in Southern Hemisphere tournaments, and was soon adopted in most European competitions (though not in the Six Nations):

• 4 points for a win
• 2 points for a draw
• 0 points for a loss (before possible bonus points)
• 1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries, regardless of the final score
• 1 bonus point for a loss by 7 points or fewer

Summary

First round

The opening game at Telstra Stadium between Australia and Argentina.

The ARU's main promotion for the event was "Show Your True Colours". The Australian media criticised the competition early in the tournament as the smaller nations were crushed by the rugby superpowers by 60 points or more. However, some of these smaller, third tier nations, such as Japan, acquitted themselves well in their opening matches. The South Pacific island countries of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa were reported as being handicapped as several of their key players who play abroad being warned by their clubs that their contracts would not be renewed if they played in the competition.

In the event, the group stage of the competition played out largely as expected, with some tension as to whether some of the "developing" nations would overtake some of the weaker major countries for the second quarter-final qualification place in each pool — in pool A, Argentina lost to Ireland by only one point, which would otherwise have carried them into the quarter-finals in Ireland's place; similarly in pool B Fiji lost to Scotland by only two points, while Italy put up a good performance in pool D. In pool C, Samoa gave England a fright with an adventurous approach that allowed them to take an early lead. However, England's superior fitness saw them through. The big clashes ran mainly to form. A disappointing South Africa limped through the pool, eventually capitulating to England to relegate them to a difficult quarter final against New Zealand. Australia just beat Ireland to top their group, whilst Wales pushed the All Blacks to the wire, after adopting an outgoing style of play with a fringe selection. France beat Scotland to round out the quarter-finals.

Knock-out stage

The knock-out quarter-final stage produced the widely predicted set of semi-finalists, although England again made heavy weather of defeating a resurgent Wales. England were widely rated the world's best team, but they struggled against a Welsh side full of belief after their game against New Zealand. France destroyed an Irish side who had gone into the match hopeful of a win, scoring 31 early points to put the game out of reach. In the other quarter-finals, a disappointing South Africa fell to New Zealand and Australia defeated the Scots.

The first semi-final produced an upset, when Australia defeated the hugely fancied New Zealand to become the first defending champions to reach the following championship final. The match was decided by a Stirling Mortlock interception try, after a loose pass from highly-rated All Blacks fly-half, Carlos Spencer. Unfortunately, it was probably the last match for Australian star Ben Darwin, who injured his neck in a scrum. Although Darwin never played rugby again the actions of Kees Meeuws - who immediately stopped exerting pressure when he heard the call "neck neck neck" - may well have saved his opponent's life and certainly prevented further injury. The second semi-final saw France face England. The boot of Jonny Wilkinson was the difference between the two sides, with England coming out victors.

Final

Main article: 2003 Rugby World Cup Final

The final between Australia and England was played at Sydney's Telstra Stadium in front of a crowd of 82,957. Australia opened the scoring after they decided to run a penalty instead of kicking for touch. Lote Tuquiri beat England's right wing, Jason Robinson, to a high cross-field kick and went over for the first try, but Elton Flatley was not able to add the conversion.

Celebrations in Trafalgar Square.

England dominated the rest of the half, opening up a 9-5 lead after Australian indiscipline gave away several penalties, but were unable to capitalise on their dominance. They nearly crossed the line on one occasion, when the Australian defence was stretched after a mistake and Ben Kay was given a potential try-scoring pass. He fumbled the ball over the line. Television replays showed Kay's reaction in four-letter words. Towards the end of the first half, England stretched their lead further. Lawrence Dallaglio made a break and popped the ball inside to Jonny Wilkinson, who drew the defence before putting Robinson away in the corner for a try. The conversion was missed, but England went in at half time leading by 14-5.

In the second half Australia tightened their discipline, and solid play forced mistakes from England. The game swung from end to end, with both sides having try-scoring opportunities, but neither able to take them. Australia managed to get points on the board and Elton Flatley scored two penalties to make the score 14-11 to England. In the 79th minute, Australia were putting pressure on England in their half. England had a scrum and just needed to keep hold of the ball until time elapsed. Several scrums were reset after the front rows failed to engage properly and finally, the referee, André Watson, gave a controversial penalty to Australia, despite England's scrum dominating the rest of the game. Flatley converted it with the last kick of normal time to tie the score 14-14 and take it to 20 minutes' extra time.

England opened the scoring in extra time with another Wilkinson penalty, but with two and a half minutes of extra time remaining Australia were awarded another penalty, which Flatley kicked successfully. With 21 seconds left before sudden death, Wilkinson scored a drop goal to win the match and with it the world championship.

Post-final

Three days after the final, the new World Champion England team landed at Heathrow Airport in the early hours of the morning, emerging from their plane to a huge reception, despite the time.^[1] On December 8 a national day of celebration took place in the form of a massive victory parade in the streets of London.^[2]

Results

Pool stage

All times French time (UTC+2)

Group A

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	BP	Points
Australia	4	0	0	273	32	2	18
Ireland	3	0	1	141	56	3	15
Argentina	2	0	2	140	57	3	11
Romania	1	0	3	65	192	1	5
Namibia	0	0	4	28	310	0	0

2003-10-10
	Australia	24 – 8	Argentina	Telstra Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 81,350 Referee: Paul Honiss
	Try: Sailor 20', Roff 74' Con: Flatley Pen: Flatley (4)		Try: Corleto 72' Pen: M. Contepomi

2003-10-11
	Ireland	45 – 17	Romania	Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, Gosford Attendance: 19,123 Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
	Tries: S. Horgan, Wood, Hickie (2), Costello Con: Humphreys (3), O'Gara Pen: Humphreys (4)		Tries: Penalty try, Maftei Con: Tofan, Vioreanu Pen: Tofan

2003-10-14
	Argentina	67 – 14	Namibia	Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, Gosford Attendance: 17,887 Referee: Nigel Whitehouse
	Tries: Méndez, Bouza (2), J. Fernández Miranda, Penalty try (2), Gaitán (3), N. Fernández Miranda Con: Quesada (7) Pen: Quesada		Tries: Grobier, Husselman Con: Wessels (2)

2003-10-18
	Australia	90 – 8	Romania	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Attendance: 48,778 Referee: Pablo De Luca
	Tries: Flatley, Rogers (3), Burke (2), Larkham (2), Mortlock, Roff, Giteau, Tuqiri, Smith Con: Flatley (11) Pen: Flatley		Tries: Toderasc Pen: Tofan

2003-10-19
	Ireland	64 – 7	Namibia	Aussie Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 35,382 Referee: Andrew Cole
	Tries: Quinlan (2), Dempsey, Hickie, Horan, Miller (2), G. Easterby, S. Horgan, Kelly Con: O'Gara (7)		Tries: Powell Con: Wessels

2003-10-22
	Argentina	50 – 3	Romania	Aussie Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 33,673 Referee: Chris White
	Tries: Gaitán, Hernández (2), M. Contepomi, N. Fernández Miranda, Bouza (2) Con: J. Fernández Miranda (4), Quesada (2) Pen: J. Fernández Miranda		Pen: Ionut Tofan

2003-10-25
	Australia	142 – 0	Namibia	Adelaide Oval Attendance: 33,000 Referee: Joël Jutge
	Tries: Latham (5), Lyons, Mortlock, Tuqiri (3), Penalty try, Rogers (2), Paul, Giteau (3), Grey, Turinui (2), Burke, Roe Con: Rogers (16)

2003-10-26
	Argentina	15 – 16	Ireland	Adelaide Oval Attendance: 30,203 Referee: André Watson
	Pen: Quesada (3) Drop: Quesada, Corleto		Tries: Quinlan Con: Humphreys Pen: Humphreys, O'Gara (2)

2003-10-30
	Namibia	7 – 37	Romania	Aurora Stadium, Launceston Attendance: 15,457 Referee: Peter Marshall
	Tries: Isaacs Con: Wessels		Tries: Petrichei, Sirbu, Chiriac, Teodorescu, Sauan Con: Tofan (3) Pen: Tofan (2)

2003-11-01
	Australia	17–16	Ireland	Telstra Dome, Melbourne Attendance: 54,206 Referee: Paddy O'Brien
	Tries: Smith Pen: Flatley (3) Drop: Gregan		Tries: O'Driscoll Con: O'Gara Pen: O'Gara (2) Drop: O'Driscoll

Group B

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	BP	Points
France	4	0	0	204	70	4	20
Scotland	3	0	1	102	97	2	14
Fiji	2	0	2	98	114	2	10
United States	1	0	3	86	125	2	6
Japan	0	0	4	79	163	0	0

2003-10-11
	France	61 – 18	Fiji	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Attendance: 46,795 Referee: Alain Rolland
	Tries: Dominici (2), Harinordoquy, Jauzion (3), Ibañez Con: Michalak (4) Pen: Michalak (6)		Tries: Naevo, Caucaunibuca Con: Little Pen: Little (2)

2003-10-11
	Scotland	32–11	Japan	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville Attendance: 19,170 Referee: Stuart Dickinson
	Tries: Paterson (2), Grimes, Taylor, Danielli Con: Paterson, Townsend Pen: Paterson		Tries: Onozawa Pen: Hirose (2)

2003-10-15
	Fiji	19 – 18	United States	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Attendance: 30,990 Referee: Joël Jutge
	Tries: Naevo Con: Little Pen: Little (4)		Tries: van Zyl, Schubert Con: Hercus Pen: Hercus (2)

2003-10-18
	France	51 – 29	Japan	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville Attendance: 21,309 Referee: Alan Lewis
	Tries: Michalak, Rougerie (2), Pelous, Dominici, Crenca Con: Michalak (5), Merceron Pen: Michalak (3)		Tries: Konia, Ohata Con: Kurihara (2) Pen: Kurihara (5)

2003-10-20
	Scotland	39 – 15	United States	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Attendance: 46,796 Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
	Tries: Danielli (2), Kerr, Townsend, Paterson Con: Paterson (4) Pen: Paterson (2)		Pen: Hercus (5)

2003-10-23
	Fiji	41 – 13	Japan	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville Attendance: 17,269 Referee: Nigel Whitehouse
	Tries: Tuilevu (2), Ligairi (2), Vunibaka Con: Little (2) Pen: Little (4)		Tries: Miller Con: Miller Pen: Miller Drop: Miller

2003-10-25
	France	51 – 9	Scotland	Telstra Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 78,974 Referee: David McHugh
	Tries: Betsen, Harinordoquy, Michalak, Galthié, Brusque Con: Michalak (3), Merceron Pen: Michalak (4) Drop: Michalak, Brusque		Pen: Paterson (3)

2003-10-27
	Japan	26 – 39	United States	Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, Gosford Attendance: 19,653 Referee: Steve Walsh
	Tries: Kurihara, Ohata Con: Kurihara (2) Pen: Kurihara (4)		Tries: Hercus, Eloff, Schubert, van Zyl, Khasigian Con: Hercus (4) Pen: Hercus (2)

2003-10-31
	France	41 – 14	United States	WIN Stadium, Wollongong Attendance: 17,833 Referee: Paul Honiss
	Tries: Liebenberg (3), Poux, Bru Con: Merceron (2) Pen: Merceron (3) Drop: Yachvili		Tries: Hercus, Schubert Con: Hercus (2)

2003-11-01
	Scotland	22 – 20	Fiji	Aussie Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 37,137 Referee: Tony Spreadbury
	Tries: Smith Con: Paterson Pen: Paterson (5)		Tries: Caucaunibuca (2) Con: Little (2) Pen: Little (2)

Group C

South Africa vs Georgia, 24 October 2003

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	BP	Points
England	4	0	0	255	47	3	19
South Africa	3	0	1	184	60	3	15
Samoa	2	0	2	138	117	2	10
Uruguay	1	0	3	56	255	0	4
Georgia	0	0	4	46	200	0	0

2003-10-11
	South Africa	72 – 6	Uruguay	Subiaco Oval, Perth Attendance: 16,906 Referee: Paddy O'Brien
	Tries: van der Westhuizen (3), van Niekerk, Botha, Delport, Fourie, Bands, Rossouw, Scholtz, Greef Con: Koen (5), Hougaard		Pen: Aguirre (2)

2003-10-12
	England	84 – 6	Georgia	Subiaco Oval, Perth Attendance: 25,501 Referee: Pablo De Luca
	Tries: Tindall, Dawson, Thompson, Back, Dallaglio, Greenwood (2), Regan, Cohen (2), Robinson, Luger Con: Wilkinson (5), Grayson (4) Pen: Wilkinson (2)		Pen: Urjukashvili, Jimsheladze

2003-10-15
	Samoa	60 – 13	Uruguay	Subiaco Oval, Perth Attendance: 22,020 Referee: David McHugh
	Tries: Fa'asavalu (2), Lima (2), Tagicakibau, Fa'atau, Lemalu, Vili, Feaunati, Palepoi Con: Va'a (3), Vili (2)		Tries: Capo, Lemoine Pen: Aguirre

2003-10-18
	South Africa	6 – 25	England	Subiaco Oval, Perth Attendance: 38,834 Referee: Peter Marshall
	Pen: Koen (2)		Tries: Greenwood Con: Wilkinson Pen: Wilkinson (4) Drop: Wilkinson (2)

2003-10-19
	Georgia	9 – 46	Samoa	Subiaco Oval, Perth Attendance: 21,507 Referee: Alain Rolland
	Pen: Jimsheladze (2) Drop: Jimsheladze		Tries: Tagicakibau, Vaa'a, Sititi, So'oialo, Feaunati, Lima Con: Va'a (5) Pen: Va'a (2)

2003-10-24
	South Africa	46 – 19	Georgia	Aussie Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 34,308 Referee: Stuart Dickinson
	Tries: Rossouw (2), Hougaard, van Niekerk, Fourie, Botha, Burger Con: Hougaard (4) Pen: Hougaard		Tries: Dadunashvili Con: Jimsheladze Pen: Jimsheladze (3), Kvirikashvili

2003-10-26
	England	35 – 22	Samoa	Telstra Dome, Melbourne Attendance: 50,647 Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
	Tries: Back, Penalty try, Balshaw, Vickery Con: Wilkinson (3) Pen: Wilkinson (2) Drop: Wilkinson		Tries: Sititi Con: Va'a Pen: Va'a (5)

2003-10-28
	Georgia	12 – 24	Uruguay	Aussie Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 28,576 Referee: Kelvin Deaker
	Pen: Urjukashvili, Kvirikashvili (3)		Tries: Cardoso, Lamelas, Brignoni Con: Aguirre (2), Menchaca Pen: Juan Menchaca