on TV in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, and a one-hour TV highlights programme was produced by IMG for wider distribution, while these recordings are held as part of the IRB's World Cup archive. Match officials On July 6, 2006 the IRB Referee Selection Committee announced the appointment of match officials, with twelve women officials selected for the tournament consisting of eight referees and four touch judges. This panel was assisted by experienced international referees George Ayoub, Lyndon Bray, Malcolm Changleng and Simon McDowell, who were appointed in April. Other three touch judges from Canada Rugby Union were included in the final list. REFEREES George Ayoub (Australia) Jenny Bental (South Africa) Rachel Boyland (Switzerland) Lyndon Bray (New Zealand) Malcolm Changleng (Scotland) Sarah Corrigan (Australia) Clare Daniels (England) Christine Hanizet (France) Joyce Henry (Canada) Nicky Inwood (New Zealand) Kerstin Ljungdahl (Germany) Simon McDowell (Ireland) TOUCH JUDGES Debbie Innes (England) Kristina Mellor (New Zealand) Kristi Moorman (Canada) Sandy Nesbitt (Canada) Kim Smit (South Africa) Dana Teagarden (United States) Todd Van Vliet (Canada) Format The competition was contested over 18 days between 12 teams, allocated to four pools of three and structured into two parts: a pool stage, with 18 matches played from August 31 to September 8; a knockout stage, divided in semifinals and finals, played from September 12 to 17. Pool stage The first three match days saw a cross-pool league system in operation, with Pool A playing Pool D and Pool B playing Pool C, with points going towards one single division table for all four pools. Classification within each pool was based on the following scoring system: four points for a win; two points for a draw; zero points for a loss of 8 points or more. Bonus points were awarded for teams scoring 4 tries or more and losing by 7 points or less. No extra time were played. Teams were ranked 1–12 on the basis of the most match points. If two teams were equal on match points for any position, then the following criteria would be used in this order until one of the teams could be determined as the higher ranked: the winner of the match between the two teams; the best differential between points scored for and points scored against; the best differential between tries scored for and against; the most points scored; the most tries scored; the toss of a