After an intense qualifying round Tonga and the United States clinched the final two RWC 2003 berths on offer, both hoping to improve on their 1999 Tournament results.
As runner up in their respective region’s final round Tonga and the United States entered two Répechage rounds, using mostly a home and away knockout format.
Rugby World Cup 2003 will feature 20 teams, just as the previous tournament did, with eight of those places automatically filled by the teams that reached the quarter final stages in 1999, including hosts and world champions Australia.
The seven other automatic qualifiers are France, England, Wales, Scotland, Argentina and former world champions South Africa and New Zealand.
A record 80 nations from five continents were involved in the qualification process designed to fill the remaining 12 spots, which began on 23 September 2000 when Luxemburg beat Norway 41-9 in Stavanger in a first round Europe Zone encounter.
The process began on each continent – Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe and the Americas – with the lesser rugby nations placed in a number of pools with the winner, and in some cases runners-up, progressing to the next round.
These nations would then be joined by the next highest ranked teams in their region to continue the qualification process until, by the end of 2002, the identity of another 10 nations to compete at Rugby World Cup 2003 were known.
The Africa zone saw 12 nations compete for one automatic place over four rounds, the first three involving three-team pools where each nation played two matches, and the last, a two-legged play-off that saw Namibia book their ticket to Australia.
Sixteen nations were involved in the Americas zone, which used a variety of formats including straight knock-out, round robins – where sides faced each other once or twice – and two-legged play-offs before Canada and Uruguay emerged as qualifiers.
Asia, the only region not represented by the 1999 quarter-finalists, had 11 nations competing for one qualification berth, a position claimed by a free-scoring Japan after a format involving three stages of round robins.
The Oceania zone involved the fewest number of teams with nine, including Niue playing their first-ever international match, with the two qualification berths going, as expected, to Fiji and Samoa.
By contrast 32 nations competed for four spots in the Europe zone, including 18 alone in the first of five rounds incorporating round robins and two legged play offs. The places were eventually taken, as expected, by Ireland, Italy, Georgia and Romania.