Rugby World Cup Rules

On 26th September 2008 the IRB introduced the first worldwide partner of the World Cup. Emirates Airlines were responsible for domestic flights during the tournament in 2007 and was a sponsor of the Rugby World Cup and other competitions.

The second main sponsor of the tournament was announced as MasterCard. The official beer of the World Cup will be Heineken produced. The group was already sponsor of the previous World Cup tournament and is named winner of the Heineken Cup European club competition. The transfer of rights to all 48 games was awarded to Sky Television New Zealand.

Tournament rules

There are four preliminary rounds, each with five participants. Within each group, each team plays once against each other. The distribution of points in the preliminary rounds will follow the following bonus system:
4 points for a win
2 points for a draw
0 points for a loss (before possible bonus points)
1 bonus point for four or more attempts, regardless of the result
1 bonus point for a defeat by seven points or less difference in the game
In a tie between two or more teams, the better table position is successively obtained by the following criteria:

Better points difference in the game
Better difference in the experiments
Higher number of game points
Higher number of attempts
Better ranking in the IRB World Rankings
The final round begins with quarterfinal games. Each game must end with a compelling victory. If it is a draw at the end of 80 minutes, there will be an extension of 2 x 10 minutes. If there is still no winner, there is a further extension of ten minutes duration, with Sudden Death.