The 1999 Rugby World Cup was hosted by Wales in association with France, England, Ireland and Scotland. The schedule of the biggest Rugby event of the world was fixed between 1 st October and 6 th November, with twenty teams participating in the competition.
Teams from sixty five nations played in the qualifying round for the event, from where twenty teams moved forward. Four teams were automatically selected for the competition, which were the 1995 World champion, runner-up, the third place play-off winner and the host nation.
In the final stage of the 1999 Rugby World Cup , twenty teams were divided in five pools , each consisting of four teams. Knock-out round started from the quarter final play-off matches. New Zealand, France, Wales and Australia moved directly to the quarter finals as the top teams from each pool. For the first time in the history of the Rugby World Cup , Quarter Final play-offs were played between the second teams from each pool. England, Fiji, Ireland, Argentina, Scotland and Samoa played in the play-off round, from where England, Argentina and Scotland progressed to the quarter finals .
In quarter finals, four matches were played, with Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and France entering into the semi-finals . In the semi-final round, the defending champion, South Africa played against Australia. Australia won the match and moved on to the final with a score-card of 27-21. Other semi-final match was played between New Zealand and France with the later winning by a huge margin (43-31). The final was played in the Millennium Stadium on 6 th November. Australia defeated France and became the 1999 Rugby World Cup champion with the score of 35-12. The third place was won by South Africa, who bagged the win against New Zealand with a score of 22-18.
