1991 Rugby World Cup

The following 16 teams, shown by region, qualified for the 1991 Rugby World Cup. Of the 16 teams, eight of those places were automatically filled by quarter-finalists from the 1987 World Cup and did not have to play any qualification matches. 25 nations competed in a qualification process designed to fill the remaining eight spots, bringing the total participation to 33 nations. In the event, there was only one change from the 1987 tournament, with Western Samoa appearing in place of Tonga. ==Venues==

As in the 1987 Rugby World Cup the 16 nations were divided into four pools of four nations, with each nation playing their other pool opponents once, every nation playing three times during the pool stages. Nations were awarded 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and zero for a loss, the top two nations of every pool advanced to the quarter-finals. The runners-up of each pool faced the winners of a different pool in the quarter-finals. The winners moved on to the semi-finals, with the winners then moving onto the final, and the losers of the semi-finals contesting a third/fourth place play off. • Pool 1 was played in England • Pool 2 was played in both Scotland and Ireland, with matches played in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland • Pool 3 was played in Wales • Pool 4 was played in France Points system The points system that was used in the pool stage was which was changed from 1987 was as follows: • 3 points for a win • 2 points for a draw • 1 point for playing A total of 32 matches (24 in the pool stage and eight in the knock-out stage) were played throughout the tournament over 30 days from 3 October 1991 to 2 November 1991. ==Pool stage==

Pool 1 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Pool 2 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Pool 3 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Pool 4 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ==Knockout stage==

Quarter-finals ---- ---- ---- Semi-finals ---- Third-place play-off Final ==Statistics==

The tournament's top point scorer was Ireland's Ralph Keyes, who scored 68 points. David Campese and Jean-Baptiste Lafond scored the most tries, six in total. ==Broadcasters==

The event was broadcast in the United Kingdom by ITV who took over the rights from the BBC. 13 million people in the United Kingdom watched the final. In Australia it was the second and the last (as of the 2023 tournament) Rugby World Cup to be broadcast on ABC television as, from 1995, the commercial networks 7, 9 and 10 would all take over the broadcast rights sometimes in partnership with pay and streaming broadcasters Fox and Stan. In New Zealand, it was broadcast by TVNZ. In France, it was broadcast by TF1 instead of France's traditional Rugby broadcasters Antenne2. In Ireland it was broadcast by RTÉ. ITV, TF1 and RTE were the host broadcasters broadcasting the pictures around the world as well to their own countries. ==References==