The 2019 Rugby World Cup is the ninth Rugby World Cup, and is being held in Japan from 20 September to 2 November. This is the first time the tournament is being held in Asia, and outside the traditional heartland of rugby union.
The opening match of the 2019 Rugby World Cup took place at the Ajinomoto Stadium in Chōfu, Tokyo, and the final match will be held at the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. These venue assignments were announced in September 2015 when plans for the tournament were revised by Japan's organizing committee and accepted by World Rugby.[1] The National Olympic Stadium, being rebuilt for the 2020 Summer Olympics, was originally the centerpiece of Japan's Rugby World Cup bid, but revisions to the Olympic Stadium plans mandated the World Cup venue changes
The IRB requested that any member unions wishing to host the 2019 or 2015 Rugby World Cup should indicate their interest by 15 August 2008. This would be purely to indicate interest; no details had to be provided at this stage. A record ten unions indicated interest in hosting either the 2015 and/or the 2019 events. The 2019 tournament received interest from nine different nations.
Russia initially announced plans to bid for both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, but withdrew both bids in February 2009 in favour of what proved to be a successful bid[2] for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens.[3] Australia withdrew from the bidding process on 6 May 2009.[4]
The three potential hosts – Italy, Japan and South Africa – were announced on 8 May 2009.[5] At a special meeting held in Dublin on 28 July 2009, the International Rugby Board (IRB) confirmed that England would host the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and Japan would host the 2019 event. The IRB voted 16–10 in favour of approving the recommendation from Rugby World Cup Ltd (RWCL) that England and Japan should be named hosts.
Venues
The IRB, RWC Ltd, JRFU and host organisers Japan 2019 went through a process of asking for expressions of interest, and meeting with and explaining game hosting requirements to interested parties from late 2013. In May[year needed] it was announced that twenty-two municipal and/or prefectural organisations had expressed interest from throughout Japan. Interested organisations were asked to enter a formal bid by 31 October 2014. At a press conference on 5 November 2014, organisers announced that bids from fourteen localities had been received. Hong Kong and Singapore had expressed interest in hosting some of the matches and were included as part of the 2009 bid,[6] but were not amongst the fourteen locations announced in 2014. Amongst the twenty-two interested parties, Yokohama (Yokohama International Stadium, venue for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final), and Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium, which was also a 2002 FIFA World Cup venue, had decided not to bid. The decision of Yokohama not to bid meant that it was virtually a foregone conclusion that the new National Stadium in Tokyo would host both the semi-finals, and the third-place playoff in addition to the opening game and final.
There have been a number of changes to the venues submitted in the JRFU's original bid in 2009. Gone are venues in Hong Kong and Singapore, so all games will be in Japan. The JRFU's own Chichibunomiya Stadium in Tokyo which might have been expected to host smaller interest games in the capital, but is not included. The JRFU selected the larger, and more modern, 50,000 seat Nagai multi-purpose stadium as its preferred venue for games in Osaka in 2009 but the Osaka Municipality and East Osaka City governments submitted a bid for the Hanazono Rugby Stadium which they are planning to refurbish as the Osaka venue option. East Osaka City will take over the stadium from long-time corporate owners Kintetsu in April 2015. Kamaishi, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Oita, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto are all venues that weren't part of the JRFU's bid. While the bids include venues from a broad area of Japan, two areas won't be involved in hosting: Hokushin'etsu (Hokuriku region and Koshin'etsu region), which includes the city of Niigata, and Chugoku Region, including Hiroshima, and nearby Shikoku Island. No city in the latter region were venues for games in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but Hiroshima did host games in the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
On 17 July 2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced that plans to build the new National Stadium would be scrapped and rebid on amid public discontent over the stadium's building costs. As a result, the new stadium would not be ready until the 2020 Summer Olympics.[7] World Rugby released a statement saying that they were extremely disappointed by the announcement "despite repeated assurances to contrary from the Japan Rugby 2019 Organising Committee and Japan Sports Council," and would "need to consider the options relating to the impact of (the) announcement."[8]
In September 2015, World Rugby approved the Japan Rugby 2019 organizing committee's revised roadmap for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which sought to resolve the venue inadequacies caused by the floundering development of the National Stadium. It was agreed that the originally proposed National Stadium fixtures will be borne by the Ajinomoto Stadium in Chōfu (a suburb of Tokyo), which will host the opening ceremony and opening match, and the Yokohama Stadium, which will host the final. The complete revised list of Rugby World Cup 2019 venues is:[1]
Draw
The pool draw took place[10] on 10 May 2017 in Kyoto.[11] The draw was moved from its traditional place of December in the year following the previous World Cup, after the November internationals, so that nations had a longer period of time to increase their World Rankings ahead of the draw.[12]
The seeding system from previous Rugby World Cups was retained with the 12 automatic qualifiers from 2015 being allocated to their respective bands based on their World Rugby Rankings on the day of the draw:
Band 1: The four highest-ranked teams
Band 2: The next four highest-ranked teams
Band 3: The final four directly qualified teams
The remaining two bands were made up of the eight qualifying teams, with allocation to each band being based on the previous Rugby World Cup playing strength:
Band 4: – Oceania 1, Americas 1, Europe 1, Africa 1
Band 5: – Oceania 2, Americas 2, Play-off Winner, Repechage Winner
This meant the 20 teams, qualified and qualifiers, were seeded thus (World Ranking as of 10 May 2017):
Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5
New Zealand (1)
England (2)
Australia (3)
Ireland (4)
Scotland (5)
France (6)
South Africa (7)
Wales (8)
Argentina (9)
Japan (11)
Georgia (12)
Italy (15)
Fiji (Oceania 1)
United States (Americas 1)
Russia (Europe 1)
Namibia (Africa 1)
Tonga (Oceania 2)
Uruguay (Americas 2)
Samoa (Play-off)
Canada (Repechage)
The draw saw a representative randomly draw a ball from a pot, the first drawn ball went to Pool A, the second Pool B, the third Pool C and the fourth Pool D. The draw began with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe drawing the pool of which hosts Japan were allocated to. The draw continued on to Band 5, drawn by Japanese Olympian Saori Yoshida, followed by Band 4, drawn by former Japanese rugby international Yoshihiro Sakata, then Band 3, drawn by All Blacks Head Coach Steve Hansen with the first team being drawn being allocated to Pool B, Band 2, drawn by Mayor of Yokohama Fumiko Hayashi and finally Band 1, drawn by World Rugby chairman and former English rugby international Bill Beaumont.
Squads
See also: 2019 Rugby World Cup squads
Each team submitted a squad of 31 players for the tournament.
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony took place on 20 September 2019 in Tokyo Stadium.[13]
Blue Impulse will make an appearance over Tokyo Stadium.
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