The fifth Rugby World Cup was held in 2003. The event was hosted by Australia . The schedule of the 2003 Rugby World Cup was programmed between 10 th October and 22 nd November.
Twenty teams from various nations competed in the 2003 Rugby World Cup for the world champion title. Eighty one teams from the world participated in the qualifying round for reaching the final stage of the 2003 World Cup . Eight teams qualifying for the quarter finals of the 1999 Rugby World Cup automatically qualified for the final round of the 2003 event. The rest twelve teams were selected through the qualifying round.
Twenty teams playing in the final stage of the 2003 rugby World Cup were divided into four pools , each consisting of five teams. Top two teams from each pool qualified for the quarter finals. From the quarter finals, the knock-out stage started. Australia, Ireland, France, Scotland, England, South Africa, New Zealand and Wales reached the quarter finals of the 2003 Rugby World Cup .
The eight teams played in four matches in the quarter final round, from where New Zealand, Australia, France and England progressed to the semi-finals . In the semi-final, New Zealand played against the defending champion, Australia. Australia defeated New Zealand with the score of 22-10 and moved on to the final. On the other hand, France lost to England in the other semifinal with the score of 7-24. The final match of the 2003 Rugby World Cup was played between Australia and England on 22 nd November at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney . Australia lost the match to England in front of their home crowd. The score of the neck to neck match was 17-20. England became the world champion for the first time winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup . New Zealand and France fought for the third place, with New Zealand winning over France by a huge margin (40-13).
