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: Masari, 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 Masari 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 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.

Qualifying teams

Region	Team	Qualification method	Previous Apps	Previous best result	World Ranking¹
Asterias
	Cassier	Asterias 1	8	Quarter-finals (2001)	22
	Gapolania	Repechage	0	Debut	29
	Nuvania	Automatic	10	Champions (1981, 1993, 2013)	6
	Rizealand	Asterias 2	10	Champions (1985)	5
	Satavia	Automatic	10	Champions (1997)	2
Coius
	Garambura	Automatic	10	Champions (2001)	3

¹as of 1 January 2019, when pools were drawn

Asteria Inferior (3) Gapolania Nuvania (2) Satavia (4) Asteria Superior (2) Cassier Rizealand (3) Coius (4) Garambura Masari Mabifia Rwizikuru

Euclea (11) Alsland Azmara Caldia (1) Template:Country data Estmere Etruria Galenia Gaullica Montecara Soravia Tengaria West Miersa

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

Draw & Pools

The pool draw took place on December 3rd, 2020, with four pools, Pool A, Pool B, Pool C and Pool D being made up of:

• Pool A: Seed 1 and Seed 3, and three other randomly selected nations
• Pool B: Seed 2 and Seed 4, and three other randomly selected nations
• Pool C: Seed 5 and Seed 7, and three other randomly selected nations
• Pool D: Seed 6 and Seed 8, and three other randomly selected nations

Following the random draw, the pools were selected like this:

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Caldia Rizealand Rwizikuru Etruria Montecara	Nuvania Satavia Alsland Mabifia West Miersa	Garambura Masari Tengaria Gapolania Cassier	Template:Country data Estmere Gaullica Soravia Azmara Galenia

Pool Stage

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