Rugby World Cup 2011 draw set for London

Jul 4 2008 WalesOnline

The 2011 Rugby World Cup draw will take place in London on December 1, the International Rugby Board announced today.

The venue for the draw will be Tourism New Zealand’s Giant Rugby Ball, which will be set up adjacent to Tower Bridge and opposite the Tower of London.

The ball was located next to the Eiffel Tower during last year’s tournament in France.

The 20 teams will be drawn into four pools of five. Of that 20, the 12 automatically qualified teams will be put into three bands dependant on their IRB world ranking on December 1 this year then drawn randomly into each respective pool.

The top four teams in the world will be in band one, teams ranked five to eight will be in band two and those ranked nine to 12 will be in band three.

The remaining eight teams will be put into bands four and five and drawn randomly into the four pools.

Banding of 12 automatic qualified teams:

Band 1: Top four ranked qualified teams (1 to 4 in IRB World Rankings)

Band 2: Next four ranked qualified teams (5 to 8 in IRB World Rankings)

Band 3: Bottom four ranked qualified teams (according to World Rankings)

As for RWC 2007, the eight qualifier positions will be randomly allocated into the final two bands:

Band 4: Oceania 1, Europe 1, Europe 2, Americas 1

Band 5: Africa 1, Asia 1, Americas 2, Play-off place.