The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb Ellis Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, who according to a popular legend, invented rugby by picking up the ball during a football game.
The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professional era.
The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the tournament. New Zealand hosted 21 matches while Australia hosted 11 matches. The event was won by co-hosts New Zealand, who were the strong favourites and won all their matches comfortably. France were losing finalists and Wales came in third: Australia, having been second favourites, finished fourth after conceding crucial tries in the dying seconds of both the semi-final against France and the third-place play-off against Wales.
The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be staged in the northern hemisphere, with England the hosts of the final. Also for the first time, qualifying competitions were introduced as the number of entrants had increased from 16 nations four years before to a total of 33 countries. The eight quarter-finalists from 1987 qualified automatically with the remaining eight spots contested through qualifiers by 25 countries. This resulted in only one new side qualifying for the tournament, Western Samoa replacing Tonga. The same 16-team pool/knock-out format was used with just minor changes to the points system. South Africa was again not included because of sanctions imposed on the country by the IRB, due to the government's apartheid policies.
Repechage is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. A well known example is the wild card system.
The 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup was the second World Cup fully sanctioned by the sports governing body the International Rugby Board (IRB). The tournament was held in Barcelona, Spain. The format was the same as the previous tournament and again 16 nations competed.
The 2009 Adelaide Sevens, promoted as the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide 2009, was a rugby sevens tournament that was part of the IRB Sevens World Series in the 2008–09 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held between 3 and 5 April at the Adelaide Oval in South Australia.
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby 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 Union and Rugby World Cup Limited. The pre-event favourites were England, regarded by many at the time as the best team in the world. New Zealand, France, South Africa and defending champions Australia were also expected to make strong showings, with New Zealand being second favourites after victory in the southern-hemisphere Tri-Nations championship.
The 2010 Adelaide Sevens, promoted as the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide 2010, was a rugby sevens tournament that was part of the IRB Sevens World Series in the 2009–10 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held between 19 and 21 March at the Adelaide Oval in South Australia.
The 2011 Adelaide Sevens, promoted as the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide 2011, was a rugby sevens tournament that was part of the IRB Sevens World Series in the 2010–11 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held over the weekend of 2–3 April 2011 at the Adelaide Oval in South Australia.
The Gold Cup is the premier rugby union club competition in South Africa for non-university teams.
The 2014 New Zealand National Rugby Sevens Tournament known as the Bayleys National Sevens will be hosted in Rotorua, New Zealand, on the 11 and 12 January 2014. Matches are to be played at the Rotorua International Stadium. Sixteen men's and ten women's provincial teams will qualify to compete in the annual national tournament following three regional tournaments in November and December.
The 2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup was the second European Rugby Champions Cup championship, the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. The European Rugby Champions Cup replaced the Heineken Cup, which was Europe's top-tier competition for rugby clubs for the first nineteen years of professional European rugby union.
The 2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the fifth edition of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, an annual series of tournaments organised by World Rugby for women's national teams in rugby sevens.
The 2017–18 European Rugby Champions Cup was the fourth European Rugby Champions Cup championship, the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby and was the twenty-third season of pan-European professional club rugby competition.
The 2017 Premiership Rugby Sevens Series was the eighth rugby union 7-a-side competition for the twelve 2017–18 Aviva Premiership clubs, and the first to exclude the four Welsh Regions which compete in the Pro14, since 2013. It was also the first to feature a new format with all twelve teams together in one venue over two days.
The 2021 Rugby League World Cup qualifying process began in June 2018 with the commencement of the 2018 Rugby League European Championship C tournament. Of the 16 nations that will compete in the World Cup, eight were granted automatic qualification, having reached the quarter finals of the 2017 World Cup. The remaining eight places were decided through a qualifying process.
The 2018–19 European Rugby Challenge Cup is the fifth edition of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, an annual second-tier rugby union competition for professional clubs. Including the predecessor competition, the original European Challenge Cup, this is the 23rd edition of European club rugby's second-tier competition. Clubs from five of the nations that participate in the Six Nations Championship, along with club-sides from Romania and Russia, are competing.
The 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup is the fifth season of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the annual club rugby union competition run by European Professional Club Rugby (ECPR) for teams from the top six nations in Europe. It is the 24th season of pan-European professional club rugby competition. This competition is the first to be sponsored by Heineken since the 2013–14 season.
The qualification process for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France began during the pool stages of the 2019 tournament in Japan, at which the top three teams from each of the four pools qualified automatically for the 2023 event. A further eight teams will qualify through regional, cross-regional play-offs and the repechage process.
Monaco 
Spain 
Samoa 
Russia 
