Pool Stage
The first round, or pool stage, sees the 20 teams divided into four pools of five teams, using the same format that was used in 2003, 2007 and in 2011. The pool stage draw was conducted at the Tate Modern on 3 December 2012 at 15:00 GMT, and divided the 12 automatic qualifiers into three bands according to their place in the most recent IRB World Rankings.
The bands are as follows:
- Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France
- Band 2: England, Ireland, Samoa, Argentina
- Band 3: Wales, Italy, Tonga, Scotland
- Band 4: Oceania 1, Europe 1, Asia 1, Americas 1
- Band 5: Africa 1, Europe 2, Americas 2, Playoff winner
Read more about this topic: 2015 Rugby World Cup
Famous quotes containing the words pool and/or stage:
“I’ th’ world’s volume
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in’ t;
In a great pool a swan’s nest.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug: the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliation of the old, the division of the family, the division of the country—it had all been done in our name.... The French city ... had represented the opium stage of the addiction. With the Americans had begun the heroin phase.”
—James Fenton (b. 1949)