Rugby World Cup
Battle lines to be drawn for RWC'11
Scrum.com
December 1, 2008
New Zealand Mauri dancers perform in front of a giant pavillion shaped like a rugby ball and dedicated to his home country near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on October 5, 2007.
The site of the draw, Tourism New Zealand's giant inflatable ball, was last seen next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris during last year's Rugby World Cup © Getty Images
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The eyes of the rugby world will focus on London on Monday with the sport's big names awaiting the RWC'11 pool allocation draw.

The top three bands for the draw, based on the IRB World Rankings, were confirmed on following the final major internationals of the year. England's 32-6 defeat against New Zealand means that they drop to sixth in the latest rankings that will be confirmed on Monday.

Had England defeated New Zealand, they would have moved above Argentina into fourth, and into the top band of teams for the RWC 2011 Pool Allocation Draw.

Wales will move up to fifth in the rankings thanks to their 21-18 win over Australia. Had they beaten Australia by more than 15 points, Wales could have moved into fourth and the top RWC Draw band, at the expense of Argentina.

For the first time the IRB World Rankings will be used to seed the 12 pre-qualified teams from RWC 2007 into bands for the draw, which takes place inside a huge inflatable ball next to Tower Bridge in London.

Members of the Maori community will welcome the team representatives plus Bernard Lapasset, Chairman, Rugby World Cup Limited, and Jock Hobbs, Chairman, Rugby New Zealand 2011, ahead of the actual draw that will take place at 15.00GMT.

As in RWC 2007, there will be four pools of five teams in RWC 2011.

The teams in the top three bands are as follows:

Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina Band 2: Wales, England, France, Ireland Band 3: Scotland, Fiji, Italy, Tonga

The final two positions in each pool will be allocated to the eight qualifying places still available for RWC 2011. The banding of these eight teams is as follows:

Band 4: Americas 1, Europe 1, Europe 2, Oceania 1 Band 5: Africa 1, Americas 2, Asia 1, Play Off place

The teams in each band will be drawn randomly into one of the four pools.

There has been some criticism of the decision to formulate the New Zealand 2011 draw based on world rankings almost three years before the event.

But Kit McConnell, head of Rugby World Cup 2011, said: "The draw is very important for us because from there we can develop the match schedule; we can select team base camps and we can also develop the ticketing strategy for the tournament. Those three elements are really critical to putting the building blocks in place early enough to make 2011 the same success as we saw in France (2007).

"By having certainty about which teams are playing which other teams in each pool, we can develop the match schedule. That is obviously of critical importance to the teams and also the supporters to know who is playing which other teams when, and where - and we will be announcing that in March, so that is really the next key step in the tournament preparations.''

Stay tuned to Scrum.com for full coverage.

Rugby World Cup Draw Facts:

  • Argentina and Ireland, along with England and South Africa, have been drawn in the same pool at the last two tournaments, a scenario which could happen again in 2011 with the sides in different bands.

  • England may face France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales annually in the Six Nations, but have never met them in the RWC pool stages. Scotland are the only one of this quartet England could be drawn with for 2011.

  • France may have ended the All Blacks' hopes of victory at RWC 2007, but Les Bleus are yet to be drawn in the same pool as New Zealand, South Africa, Australia or Italy in the tournament's history.

  • New Zealand and Italy are no strangers to each other, having been drawn in the same pool at five of the six previous Rugby World Cups, the only exception being 1995.

  • South Africa cannot meet fellow Band 1 sides Argentina or New Zealand for the first time in the pool stages, but they could secure a maiden pool meeting with Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy or Wales.

  • Scotland cannot meet fellow Band 3 side Tonga for the first time, but could find themselves in unfamiliar territory with a pool involving Argentina, Australia, England or Wales.

  • Tonga have never met Argentina or Australia in the pool stages of a Rugby World Cup.

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