^{Artists impression of the proposed, re-vamped Eden Park}

New Zealand, Eden Park, October 24, 2011

New Zealand selected above Japan & South Africa as the host country for the 2011 World Cup

The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be the seventh time that the Rugby World Cup (RWC) has been held. At a meeting of the International Rugby Board (IRB) held in Dublin on 17 November 2005, New Zealand was selected in preference to both Japan and South Africa. There were two rounds of voting by the IRB Council to decide the host nation, with South Africa being eliminated in the first round.

The final will be played in Auckland on Sunday October 23, 2011, at Eden Park. The date was chosen so it falls on a long weekend in New Zealand, the public holiday of Labour Day, Monday October 24, 2011.

It has not yet been decided whether 16 or 20 teams will take part. But It was also announced that for this tournament there will be a change to the qualifying procedure. Now there will be 12 automatic qualifiers, being decided by placings in the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Teams finishing in the top 3 of every pool will automatically qualify for 2011.

The event will cost about $NZ152.05 million to run, and will be the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, eclipsing the 1987 Rugby World Cup, 1990 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 America's Cup.

The History

Previously New Zealand had co-hosted the highly successful first Rugby World Cup with Australia in 1987. However, its lack of accommodation and sporting stadiums were speculated as impediments to future chances. Originally set to co-host the 2003 tournament with Australia, New Zealand lost the privilege due to a disagreement over ground signage rights. Prior to the 2005 Lions tour to New Zealand, critics doubted that New Zealand had the infrastructure to host an event of this size.

The New Zealand bid contained plans to enlarge the size of Eden Park to help increase the commercial viability of the bid. The Lions tour was held successfully in New Zealand, without doubt. The NZRU and New Zealand are working towards hosting a memorable World Cup.

Of the three candidates, Japan was widely expected to win hosting rights. It was believed to be the desire of the IRB to move the tournament from the traditional rugby nations such as New Zealand and South Africa. If it were to have been held in Japan it would be the first time a Rugby World Cup had taken place in Asia. With stadiums from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, it had the necessary infrastructure already in place. The Japanese bid also had the support of World Cup winning players (Martin Johnson, Toutai Kefu, Matt Cockbain, and John Kirwan) and coaches (Eddie Jones, Rob Andrew).

However, the Japan Rugby Football Union had never hosted a major rugby tournament before. The biggest factor in preventing Japan winning the bid was believed to be its leaving important bid details until its final presentation in Dublin. Many delegates had been instructed who to vote for prior to the final bid presentations.

The South African bid, led by former national captain Francois Pienaar, had strong support from their government. It successfully hosted the tournament in 1995. There was belief throughout the rugby community that the organisation of the Rugby World Cup would be overshadowed by the organisation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

After an IRB inspection of each applicant host nation during June and July 2005, the winning bid of New Zealand was announced.