2015 Rugby World Cup (1983: Doomsday)

The 2015 Rugby World Cup will be held between the 18th September and the 31st October.

Host Selection
On the 8th May 2012, the IRB (now known as World Rugby) recommended the Celtic Alliance has host nation beating out Japan, Sicily and New Britain as host nation.

At the same time, Japan was awarded host nation of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. This will be the first time the competition visits a Tier 2 team (after New Zealand, and the Celtic Alliance).

Venues
After the Celtic Alliance was confirmed host, the proposed stadia were revealed. All 12 proposed stadiums would later be used in the Pool Stage with 4 of the 12 housing the Quarterfinals, Semi-finals, Bronze playoff and Final.

◾St James Park (Newcastle) ◾Millennium Stadium (Cardiff) ◾Kingsholm Stadium (Gloucester) ◾Aviva Stadium (Dublin) ◾Hampden Park (Glasglow) ◾Murray field Stadium (Edinburgh) ◾Liberty Stadium (Swansea) ◾Anfield (Liverpool) - undergoing rennovations ◾Croke Park (Dublin) ◾Simple Stadium (Thurles) ◾Stade Francis-Le-Ble (Brest) ◾Windsor Park (Belfast)

Participating Teams
The International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) decided to stick with the original 16 teams, however changed the rules of qualification into the competition. As of the 28th July 2012 the new rules stipulate:

1.The two highest scoring teams of each pool progress to the next Rugby World Cup without qualification.

1a. Incase of two tied teams, the team with the highest number of tries progresses.

1b. If there is still a tie, the team who won the match against each other will progress.

2. The remaining 8 spots will be contested in a qualifying process, held several months before the tournament.

All four (4) pools, consist of four (4) teams.

Pool A

◾Celtic Alliance ◾Sicily ◾Samoa and Hawaii (will separate in 2019) ◾UAR

Pool B

◾Australia ◾Northumbria ◾Monaco ◾Canada

Pool C

◾New Zealand ◾Fiji ◾New Britain ◾Japan

Pool D

◾Tonga ◾Cleveland ◾Victoria ◾Volkstaat