Result of the 1995 Rugby World Cup brought changes in the world map of rugby with new teams emerging as the powerhouse of world rugby. The World Cup in South Africa was the first one to be held in a single country and had sixteen teams participating in the tournament.
Of them, South Africa qualified as the host and the eight quarter finalists of the 1991 Rugby World Cup including Canada, England, France and Ireland gained automatic admission. The other countries to be automatically qualified were Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Western Samoa. Cote d'Ivoire, Argentina, Italy, Romania, Wales and Tonga qualified by playing the regional qualifiers.
The tournament was divided into the group stage or the first round and the knockout stages . In the first round, the sixteen teams were grouped under four Pools-A, B, C and D- with four teams in each Pool. Pool A had hosts South Africa and Australia qualify to the quarter final stage after competing with Canada and Romania while England and Western Samoa qualified for the next stage from Pool B which also contained Italy and Argentina. The New Zealand team won all their group league matches to qualify to the knockout stage with Ireland from Pool C with Wales and Japan crushing out from the group stages. The four teams in Pool D were France, Scotland, Tonga and Cote d'Ivoire of which the first two moved on to play in the quarter finals.
The quarter finals begun with France beating Ireland and South Africa thrashing Western Samoa in two pretty one sided matches. In the third quarter final, England got better of Australia in a nail-biting finish. But in the last one, Scotland proved no match for New Zealand who remained unbeaten in the tournament to advance to the semifinals .
In the two semifinals in Durban and Cape Town, South Africa defeated France to the delight of the whole nation and New Zealand had a convincing win against England. In the meeting between the losers of the semifinal, France defeated England to gain the third spot. The final between the Springboks and the Kiwis was held in the Ellis Park Stadium in presence of the South African president Nelson Mandela and a large crowd of supporters turned out to cheer the home team. The final was a tense one and the match was dragged into extra time where a late drop goal by Joel Stransky won the match and the William Webb Ellis Cup for the host nation to the utmost joy of the supporters present there.
