Pool Stages: Wallabies Whip Romania and USA
The pool stages were unusual than previous World Cups- with the winner of each group, moving on to the quarterfinals, while the five runners up and best third place, contested the quarterfinal Play-off's.
Winners of the quarterfinal Play-off's moved on to the quarterfinals.
This meant that two pool winners had played each other in the quarterfinals.
In Pool A, South Africa and Scotland left debutants Spain and Uruguay behind.
New Zealand and England edged out Tonga and Italy.
In Pool C, France and Fiji outclassed Canada and new comers Namibia.
Pool D was a closely contested group- with Wales taking it, followed by Samoa – while Argentina qualified as the third best team, Japan was left behind.
Australia and Ireland ran riot over Romania and the United States in Pool E.
South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and France dominated the pool stages, without losing a single game.
England humiliated Tonga 101-0, were eight players scored tries.
New Zealand showed their dominance by crushing Italy 101-3 in McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield. Tony Brown slotted 11 conversions, three penalties and scored one try in the match.
Both, England and New Zealand went past century mark.
Italy conceded the most points (196) in the pool stages.
The same point system that was used in the 1991 and 1995 World Cups (three points for a win, two points for a draw and one point for playing) was used again.
