Result of the 2003 Rugby World Cup was a reverse of the earlier one but hardly meant any change in the distribution of power in the world of rugby.
The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand jointly. But due to some disputes, Australia was the only country to stage the World Cup. The tournament had an increased number of participating teams than the earlier years which added to twenty.
The twenty participating nations were divided in five Pools in the group stages . For the first time, each Pool contained five teams. Australia and Ireland qualified for the Quarter Finals from Pool A which also contained Argentina, Romania and Namibia. Pool B had France, Scotland, Fiji, United States and Japan of which the first two moved on to the next round. The teams to advance from Pool C were England and South Africa and Samoa, Uruguay and Georgia crushed out of the competition. New Zealand topped Pool D to go forward to the knockout stages with second placed Wales while Italy, Canada and Tonga were the teams from this Pool to go out of the tournament.
The Quarter Finals commenced with New Zealand thrashing South Africa and Australia getting better of Scotland. Ireland was defeated by France in the third Quarter Final and in the fourth, England triumphed over neighbors Wales. The two Semi finals between two pairs of arch rivals had Australia and England triumph over New Zealand and France respectively. In the Final in the Telstra Stadium of Sydney, England edged out Australia.
