The battle for the sport's biggest prize will not take place until 2011 but the draw for the tournament will be made on Monday © IRB

Enlarge

Related Links

News: Battle lines to be drawn for RWC'11

News: England facing tough Rugby World Cup draw

News: Critics will fire up England

News: Wales and England chase rankings prize

News: IRB clarify RWC'11 draw details

News: Regions express RWC interest

News: Report highlights economic benefit of RWC

News: Christchurch, Wellington to host RWC quarter-finals

Tournaments/Tours: Rugby World Cup

Teams: Argentina | Australia | England | France | Ireland | Italy | New Zealand | Scotland | South Africa | Wales

The eyes of the rugby world will be on London next week as the draw is made for the sport's next global showpiece.

Rugby World Cup 2011 may still be three years away but players, coaches, journalists and fans alike will be keen observers on December 1 as the groupings for the pool stages are announced.

The majority of the 20 teams that will contest RWC'11 are already known, with 12 having pre-qualified by finishing in the top three in each pool at last year's tournament in France. As a result the sport's big names - New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, England, Wales, France, Ireland, Scotland and Italy - are all assured of their place at the RWC'11 table - and so too are the Fiji and Tonga, who have been rightfully rewarded for their eye-catching displays 12 months ago.

For the first time the International Rugby Board will use their World Rankings to seed the 12 pre-qualified teams for the draw ensuring the highest ranked sides avoid each other until the latter stages of the tournament.

The remaining eight berths are yet to be determined by regional qualifying with the likes of Rugby World Cup veterans Samoa, Canada, USA, Romania and Japan facing an arduous playing schedule before they can look forward to dining with the big boys again. For the Pool Allocation Draw these places will be allocated into bands four and five of each pool.

The decision to re-vamp the draw criteria stemmed from criticism of mis-matches during the pool stages at previous tournaments that saw 'blow-out' scores like New Zealand's 108-13 win against Portugal in 2007 and Australia's 142-0 hammering of Namibia in 2003.

Despite their best intentions such results are likely to remain a feature of the next tournament at least. The gulf between the haves and have nots remain in the sport and even with the helping financial hand that the IRB provide the disparity will surely still be there for all to see in three years time.

The merits of using the 2008 end-of-year rankings to formulate the schedule of a tournament that will not take place until 2011 have also been debated throughout the sport since the decision to do so was announced earlier this year.

According to tournament officials time was required to, "negotiate and confirm venues for the 48 matches and the associated team base camps," with the needs of broadcasters and the hosts another reason cited.

But whether you agree or not with the new system, the added incentive of world ranking points has provided extra bite to the recent international clashes with teams hoping to ensure a favourable.

The top four in the IRB World Rankings on December 1, will be allocated to band one - or the top line in each pool - and drawn randomly into the pools. The next four teams will be allocated into band two with the remaining four teams allocated into band three.

This means that teams ranked in the top four will not be drawn in the same RWC 2011 pool. Equally, a team ranked five to eight in the rankings will definitely be in the same pool as a team ranked one to four.

Heading into the final weekend of a busy international period the majority of rankings are decided, although both Wales and England have a chance this weekend to claim the valuable No.4 spot in the rankings currently held by Argentina - who memorably claimed 3rd place at RWC'07.

The Pumas held onto their ranking despite losing 17-3 to Ireland last weekend but they face a nervous wait having completed their international programme for 2008.

England, Rugby World Cup winners in 2003 and runners-up in 2007, must beat No.1 ranked side New Zealand if they are to improve their ranking while Six Nations champions Wales must beat Australia by 15 points and hope for an English loss if they are to displace Argentina.

When the dust has settled this weekend the focus will switch to Tourism New Zealand's eye-catching giant inflatable rugby ball that currently resides next to Tower Bridge on the banks of the River Thames - it is here that the great and the good will gather as the battle lines for RWC'11 are drawn.

Rugby World Cup 2011 - Pre-qualified teams:
Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga and Wales.

Banding of 12 automatic qualified teams:
Band 1: Top four ranked qualified teams (1 to 4 in IRB World Rankings)
Band 2: Next four ranked qualified teams (5 to 8 in IRB World Rankings)
Band 3: Bottom four ranked qualified teams (according to IRB World Rankings)

Banding of eight teams yet to qualify:
Band 4: Oceania 1, Europe 1, Europe 2, Americas 1
Band 5: Africa 1, Asia 1, Americas 2, Play-Off place

IRB World Rankings: (as of November 24)
1(1) New Zealand 92.43
2(2) South Africa 89.45
3(3) Australia 87.34
4(4) Argentina 81.56
5(5) England 81.11
6(7) Wales 79.55
7(6) France 79.49
8(8) Ireland 78.45
9(9) Scotland 76.76
10(10) Fiji 75.24
11(11) Italy 74.64
12(12) Samoa 72.57
13(13) Tonga 70.05
14(14) Georgia 69.43
15(15) Canada 69.12
16(16) Japan 68.05
17(17) Romania 67.20
18(18) Russia 64.63
19(19) USA 63.55
20(20) Uruguay 62.78