The 1999 Rugby World Cup was also regarded as the fourth Rugby World Cup . Twenty participating teams of the biggest rugby event of the world fought for the World Champion title between 1 st October and 6 th November.
The beginning of the 1999 Rugby World Cup was a blow to the rugby fans of the world, when top eight teams could not reach the final stage of the tournament directly. Only four teams, South Africa , the 1995 Champion, New Zealand , the 1995 Runner-up, France , the third place play-off winner and Wales , the host nation qualified straight to the final stage of the 1999 Rugby World Cup .
Sixty five nations played in the qualifying round for the sixteen places left for the final stage. For the first time in the history of the Rugby World Cup , Repechage system was introduced. In this system, the runner-up losing by a short margin from each qualifying zone was selected fro the final stage of the competition. The American nations making it to the final level of the 1999 Rugby World Cup were Argentina, Canada , Uruguay and the United States of America . Namibia qualified as the second African country after South Africa, who qualified automatically. From Oceania, Australia , Fiji, Samoa and Tonga reached the final round along with New Zealand. Japan cleared the qualifying round to be the only Asian team participating in the 1999 Rugby World Cup . Apart from France and Wales, six more nations from Europe namely, England , Ireland , Italy, Romania, Scotland and Spain qualified for the final stage of the World Cup . Among these teams, Australia emerged as the winner of the 1999 Rugby World Cup defeating France.
