2003 Rugby World Cup

The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup Limited. The pre-event favourites were England, regarded by many at the time as the best team in the world. New Zealand, France, South Africa and defending champions Australia were also expected to make strong showings, with New Zealand being second favourites after victory in the southern-hemisphere Tri-Nations championship.

The tournament began with host nation Australia defeating Argentina 24–8 at Stadium Australia in Sydney. Australia went on to defeat New Zealand 22–10 in the semi-final, to play England in the final. Along with a try to Jason Robinson, Jonny Wilkinson kicked four penalties and then a drop-goal in extra time to win the game 20–17 for England, who became the first northern hemisphere team to win the Webb Ellis Cup and the only one as of 2025^[update] (with their only title).

The following 20 teams, shown by region, qualified for the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Of the 20 teams, eight of those places were automatically filled by the teams that reached the quarter-final stages in 1999, including hosts and world champions Australia and did not have to play any qualification matches. A record 81 nations from five continents were involved in the qualification process designed to fill the remaining 12 spots, which began on 23 September 2000.

Hosting rights to the tournament were initially awarded to both Australia and New Zealand; Australia would serve as the primary host, staging 25 of the 48 matches, while the other 23 would be played in New Zealand. Concerns were expressed in January 2001 that Australia might have been stripped of hosting rights after the International Rugby Board (IRB) removed official status from the 2001 Brisbane Sevens in response to the Australian government denying entry visas to the Fiji team; despite this, the IRB confirmed that Australia was still confirmed as host nation.

In March 2002, the Australian Rugby Union withdrew its offer to allow New Zealand to co-host the tournament after New Zealand Rugby failed to return the sub-host agreement by the deadline of 04:00 GMT on 8 March 2002. The New Zealand governing body had returned the documents, but with substantial changes relating to signage inside stadiums. New Zealand Rugby had intended for the annual National Provincial Championship to take place during the World Cup, and insisted on being able to honour its agreement with local sponsors, but this was not acceptable to the IRB. The ARU was then given 21 days to come up with alternative arrangements. Australia's new plans were ratified at an IRB meeting on 18 April 2003, confirming them as sole hosts of the tournament. The IRB was criticised from some quarters for its decision to strip New Zealand of the World Cup, and speaking to BBC Sport, former New Zealand number 8 Zinzan Brooke called on his former team to threaten a boycott of tournament. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the IRB and the ARU had not given enough time to find a solution; however, the head of the ARU, John O'Neill, said he feared Australia could lose the World Cup entirely as a result of the disagreement.

The overall stadium capacity was 421,311 across 11 venues. This was a reduction from the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales (with games also held in England, France, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland) which had a total capacity of 654,677 across 18 venues.

The Adelaide Oval underwent a AU$20 million redevelopment for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, financed entirely by the South Australian Cricket Association, with two new grandstands built adjacent to the Victor Richardson Gates. Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane (formerly Lang Park) was a new A$280 million venue designed specifically for rugby league, rugby union and soccer, and was opened just prior to the start of the 2003 World Cup with a capacity of 52,500, some 12,000 more than the old Lang Park could hold. The Central Coast Stadium was also a newly built rectangular venue built for union, league and soccer. It was built on the site of the old Grahame Park ground and was opened in February 2000 at a cost of A$30 million.

The Sydney Football Stadium was one of two venues in Sydney that were used for football during the 2000 Olympic Games. The other venue in Sydney was Stadium Australia, which was the centrepiece of the 2000 Olympic Games. It was built as the main stadium of the 2000 Olympics at a cost of $690 million and with a capacity of 83,500 was the biggest stadium used in the 2003 World Cup (the stadium had an original capacity of 110,000 before undergoing a post-Olympics redevelopment from 2001 to 2003). The only stadium with a retractable roof used was the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne. Although the Docklands Stadium has movable seating which brings four sections of the lower bowl forward by 18 metres to create a more rectangular surround for the pitch, this was not used during the World Cup as it reduces the seating capacity of the stadium by approximately 3,500.