2021 Rugby World Cup (Kylaris)

2021 Rugby World Cup

Tournament details
Host nation	Satavia
Dates	15 January – 17 March
No. of nations	20 (52 qualifying)
Final positions
Champions	Garambura
Runner-up	Satavia
Third place	Caldia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	48
Attendance	2,581,211 (53,775 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jean-Loup Dupuy (93)
Most tries	Jonty Warwick (9)
← 2017 2025 →

The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the eleventh edition of the Rugby World Cup, hosted in Satavia and held from 15 January to 17 March across twelve stadiums in Satavia. The opening match between Caldia and Rwizikuru was played at the Stadium of the Satavians, Port Hope where the final was also held. This marked the first time that the openining match of the tournament did not involve the host nation, after the match was postponed due to a flash flood the night before the match was due to be held. The tournament marked the second time the tournament had been hosted in Asteria Inferior (after the 1993 tournament, held in Nuvania) and the first time Satavia had hosted.

The tournament saw 20 nations compete, with two (Alsland and Gapolania) making their debuts having succesfully qualified for the first time. 12 nations gained automatic qualification having finished in the top three of their pools from the 2017, whilst the remaning eight slots were filled through qualification processes. Garambura went on to beat hosts Satavia 28-17 in the final to claim their second title, whilst defending champions Caldia defeated Rizealand 17-3 to clinch third place.

Bids

Kylaris Rugby, the international rugby union governing body, announced the bidding process for the 2017 and 2021 tournaments in early 2011. Four bids for the 2021 tournament were entered: Maucha, Nuvania Rizealand and Satavia. The deadline for entering a bid was December 31, 2012, although this was extended until January 15, 2013 on the request of the Satavian Rugby Football Association (SRFA). Nuvania withdrew their bid in March 2013 in support of the Satavian bid, whilst Maucha withdrew their bid later that month with the aim of strenghthening their own bid for 2017 (which would ultimately be awarded to Garambura). On July 14 Kylaris Rugby confirmed that Satavia had won the right to host the 2021 tournament, with venues across eight Satavian cities: Bloemstad, Kingsleigh, Konningstad, Northport, Port Arthur, Port Hope, Windstad, Victoriaburg.

Venues

Proposed stadia for the tournament were announced by the SRFA in December 2013, and were confirmed in May 2015. Having originally proposed 12 stadiums, this number was reduced to 9 in the final plan, with two stadiums in the Port Hope/Burnaby region. The SRFA drew significant criticism from politicians and the public in the Central Territory, Diereplek Province and New Borland after all three were excluded from the final plan.

Port Hope International Stadium	Fort Kinnon Arena	DePex Stadium (Stadium of the Satavians)
Port Hope	Port Arthur-Fort Kinnon	Port Hope
Capacity: 59,373	Capacity: 54,211	Capacity: 70,758
P. J. Van der Herdens Stadium	Krooksveld Road Stadium	Satavian Airlines Oval
Konningstad	Northport	Windstad
Capacity: 28,476	Capacity: 34,822	Capacity: 26,183
Victoriaburg City Stadium	Brooksveld Stadium	Kingsleigh Blues RFC Park
Victoriaburg	Bloemstad	Kingsleigh
Capacity: 65,445	Capacity: 36,290	Capacity: 24,512

Qualifying

The top three teams from each pool of the 2017 tournament recieved automatic qualification, as did Satavia as host nation. The remaining eight places were filled through qualification tournaments around the world. Two slots were avaliable for Asterian teams, filled by Cassier and Gapolania, two spots for Coian teams, filled by Mabifia and Rwizikuru, whilst three slots were open for Euclean teams, filled by Alsland, Galenia and Montecara. The final slot was decided by a repechage tournament held in Port Hope, in September 2018. It was unexpectedly won by Alsland, who defeated favourites Senria 36-24 in the deciding game.

Qualifying teams

Region	Team	Qualification method	Previous Apps	Previous best result	World Ranking¹
Asterias
	Cassier	Asterias 1	8	Fourth place (2001)	16
	Gapolania	Asterias 2	0	Debut	34
	Nuvania	Automatic	10	Champions (1981, 1993, 2013)	6
	Rizealand	Automatic	10	Champions (1985)	5
	Satavia	Automatic	10	Champions (1997)	2
Coius
	Garambura	Automatic	10	Champions (2001)	3
	Mabifia	Coius 1	8	Pool stage (eight times)	13
	Maucha	Automatic	10	Third place (2009)	7
	Rwizikuru	Coius 2	6	Pool stage (six times)	14
Euclea
	Alsland	Repechage	0	Debut	29
	Azmara	Automatic	7	Quarter-finals (2005, 2013)	15
	Caldia	Automatic	10	Champions (1989, 2005, 2009, 2017)	1
	Template:Country data Estmere	Automatic	10	Third place (1997)	4
	Etruria	Automatic	10	Quarter-finals (1989, 2005)	12
	Galenia	Euclea 1	3	Pool stage (2009, 2013, 2017)	20
	Gaullica	Automatic	10	Third place (1989)	8
	Montecara	Euclea 2	1	Pool stage (2017)	26
	Soravia	Automatic	7	Fourth place (2013)	11
	Tengaria	Euclea 3	6	Quarter-finals (2009, 2013)	10
	West Miersa	Automatic	1	Pool stage (2017)	9

¹as of 1 January 2019, the final standings before pools were drawn

Participants of the 2021 RWC, in blue, with the host, Satavia, in Green

Draw

The pool draw took place on January 7, 2019, with five bands, three of which were made up of the automatically qualifying teams and two made up of the teams which had to qualify to participate. The seeding system used at previous world cups was retained for the 2021 tournament.

• Band 1: The four highest ranked teams
• Band 2: The next four highest ranked teams
• Band 3: The final four automatically qualified teams

The remaining two bands were made up of qualifying teams:

• Band 5: Asterias 1, Coius 1, Euclea 1, Euclea 2
• Band 6: Asterias 2, Coius 2, Euclea 3, Repechage

This means the 20 competing teams were seeded thus (world ranking as of 1 January 2019):

Band 1	Band 2	Band 3	Band 4	Band 5
Caldia (1) Satavia (2) Garambura (3) Template:Country data Estmere (4)	Rizealand (5) Nuvania (6) Maucha (7) Gaullica (8)	West Miersa (9) Soravia (11) Etruria (12) Azmara (15)	Cassier (Asterias 1) Mabifia (Coius 1) Galenia (Euclea 1) Montecara (Euclea 2)	Gapolania (Asterias 2) Rwizikuru (Coius 2) Tengaria (Euclea 3) Alsland (Repechage)

Squads

Each team submitted a squad of 31 players for the tournament, with a deadline of 1 January, with Estmere being the last team to unveil a squad, doing so on the 31 December 2020. In the originally named Etruria squad, two players, Aleki Ioane and brother Enele Ioane were named, but removed after the deadline and replaced with the consent of Kylaris Rugby as they were ineligible to play for Etruria (at that time they were only eligible to play for Satavia, through the Patrick Islands, but became eligible for Etruria on the 17 January, two days after the start of the World Cup).

Match officials

For the 2021 World Cup, Kylaris Rugby named twelve referees, eight assistant referees and four television match officials to oversee all 48 matches.

Referees	Assistant referees	Television match officials
Template:Country data Estmere Daniel McCaw (Estmere) Template:Country data Estmere Richie Parker (Estmere) Cyril Batteux (Gaullica) Gaël Frère (Gaullica) Bruno Cormier (Gaullica) Éamonn Ó Cadhla (Caldia) Guillaume Jalibet (Garambura) Edward Scott (Satavia) William Walker (Satavia) Hendrik de Klerk (Nuvania) Mark Goldbridge (Rizealand)	Template:Country data Estmere Matthew Drake (Estmere) Template:Country data Estmere Arthur Grath (Estmere) Cian Mac Murchú (Caldia) Malcolm Farrell (Satavia) Patrick de Jong (Nuvania) Liam Henshaw (Nuvania) Mitsugi Sessue (Senria) Manuel Lopez (Rizealand)	Chase Lawson (Satavia) Piet Steph du Plessis (Nuvania) Ben Lowbridge (Rizealand) Cory Carter (Rizealand)

Pool Stage

Key to colours in pool tables
	Advanced to the quarter-finals and qualified for the 2025 Rugby World Cup
	Eliminated but qualified for 2025 Rugby World Cup

Pool A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	BP	Total Pts
Rizealand	4	4	0	0	4	20
Caldia	4	3	0	1	1	13
Rwizikuru	4	1	1	2	1	7
Etruria	4	1	1	2	0	6
Montecara	4	0	0	4	0	0

15 January 2021	Rwizikuru	3-7	Caldia	DePex Stadium, Port Hope
16 January 2021	Montecara	3-35	Rizealand	Port Hope International Stadium, Port Hope
17 January 2021	Etruria	11-0	Montecara	Port Edward Arena, Port Edward
17 January 2021	Rwizikuru	18-37	Rizealand	Port Hope International Stadium, Port Hope
20 January 2021	Caldia	21-26	Rizealand	DePex Stadium, Port Hope
20 January 2021	Montecara	0-10	Rwizikuru	Port Hope RFC Grounds, Port Hope
23 January 2021	Rwizikuru	0-0	Etruria	Satavian Airlines Oval, Adamstown
23 January 2021	Caldia	24-0	Montecara	Fort Kinnon Arena, Port Arthur-Fort Kinnon
24 January 2021	Caldia	21-0	Etruria	Northport RFC, Northport
26 January 2021	Rizealand	65-0	Etruria	Fort Kinnon Arena, Port Arthur-Fort Kinnon

Knockout Stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	29 January – Port Hope
	Rizealand	19
					5 February – Port Hope
	Azmara	7
					Rizealand	12
	29 January – Fort Kinnon
					Satavia	13
	Satavia	14
									16 February – Port Hope
	Gapolania	10
									Satavia	17
	31 January – Northport
									Garambura	28
	Garambura	8
					6 February – Port Hope
	Nuvania	5
					Garambura	18
	30 January – Port Hope
					Caldia	14			Third place
	Template:Country data Estmere	17
									13 February – Port Hope
	Caldia	19
									Rizealand	3
									Caldia	17

Broadcasting

• Gapolania: RTG Sport
• Montecara: Telè1
• Satavia: SBC
• Template:Country data Estmere: EBS 1 & EBS Sport