Australia defeated the defending champions New Zealand 16–6 at Lansdowne Road. The final was played at Twickenham Stadium in London, and saw Australia triumph 12–6 against England, with a first-half try from prop Tony Daly. Qualification The following 16 teams, shown by region, qualified for the 1991 Rugby World Cup. Of the 16 teams, eight of those places were automatically filled by quarter-finalists from the 1987 World Cup and did not have to play any qualification matches. 25 nations competed in a qualification process designed to fill the remaining eight spots, bringing the total participation to 33 nations. In the event, there was only one change from the 1987 tournament, with Western Samoa appearing in place of Tonga. Venues as found in ffr.fr consulted on 7 February 2013 apropos of the pool match between France and Fiji played on 8 October 1991 Squads Referees Format As in the 1987 Rugby World Cup the 16 nations were divided into four pools of four nations, with each nation playing their other pool opponents once, every nation playing three times during the pool stages. Nations were awarded 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and zero for a loss, the top two nations of every pool advanced to the quarter finals. The runners-up of each pool faced the winners of a different pool in the quarter finals. The winners moved on to the semi finals, with the winners then moving onto the final, and the losers of the semi finals contesting a third/fourth place play off. Pool 1 was played in England Pool 2 was played in both Scotland and Ireland, with matches played in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland Pool 3 was played in Wales Pool 4 was played in France Points system The points system that was used in the pool stage was which was changed from 1987 was as follows: 3 points for a win 2 points for a draw 1 point for playing A total of 32 matches (24 in the pool stage and eight in the knock-out stage) were played throughout the tournament over 30 days from 3 October 1991 to 2 November 1991. Pool stage Pool 1 Pool 2 Pool 3 Pool 4 Knockout stage Quarter-finals Semi-finals Third-place play-off Final Statistics The tournament's top point scorer was Ireland's Ralph Keyes, who scored 68 points. David Campese and Jean-Baptiste Lafond scored the most