The Rugby World Cup is the apex of the rugby world. The very best international teams come together for a massive all-out brawl once every 4 years to find who can be crowned king of the rugby world. The winner takes away the William Webb Ellis Trophy.
Entry to the competition gets tougher every year. There are over 90 countries ranked by the IRB and the lower teams need to pass through a qualification process, beating off their rivals to earn a right of passage to the main event where 8 spots are up for grabs. The big nations gain automatic qualification and fill the first 12 spots.
Within the tournament there are two main sections of play. In the first there are 4 pools of 5 teams each, where each pool plays a round-robin style competition meaning 4 games each. The top 2 teams from each pool then qualify to progress through to the business 'knockout' end of the tournament, comprising of quarterfinals, semi finals and then the final.
The RWC is rated as the 3rd biggest sporting event on the globe. While some find this debatable it is right up there and is getting bigger every year. Like other major events such as the Olympics, countries face an ever increasing battle win the hosting rights.
The Rugby World Cup 2011 is being hosted by New Zealand from 9 September 2011 through to the final on 23 October. As ever the All Blacks go into the tournament as red hot favourites, but history shows that this means nothing in a knockout tournament like this. There are multiple teams capable of beating anyone on their day.
In the Round Robin, teams play all other teams in their Pool.