The Four, Rugby World Cup Pools - RWC 2015

2015 Rugby World Cup:

Pool Stage

The Rugby World Cup, a Rugby Union World Championship competition, that occurs only once every Four years, is set to begin its 8th tournament on September 18th, 2015, and will be hosted by England.

The First Round of competition for The World Cup is most commonly referred to as the "Pool Stage":

The Pool Stage consists of dividing up the 20 International Rugby Teams that will be competing in this magnificent event into 

        4 "Pools" of  5 Teams each.  

Each Pool will then be designated one of the first four letters of the Alphabet for ease of conversation and communication (i.e., Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, and Pool D).

Once divided, each Pool's 5 Teams will proceed in a "Round Robin" type fashion and stand off against each other until every Team in that one Pool has played once against every other Team within the same Pool, hence Ten Games for each Pool, with a total of Forty Games for the whole of the First Round, or Pool Stage.

Within a Pool, Teams are awarded:

          4 (Four) Points for a Win, 
          2 (Two) Points for a Draw, and 
          0 (Zero) Points for a Defeat
                             (AKA None, Zip, Zilch, Nada!).

In addition, 
     - a Team that scores 4 or more Tries within a 
          single Test Match (Game), OR
     - a Team that loses by 7 points or fewer 
will also be awarded:

          1 (One) Bonus Point.

The 3 top-scoring Teams of each Pool will all be rewarded with an Automatic Qualification for the next World Cup, scheduled to take place in Japan, in the year 2019;

   however, only the 2

top-scoring Teams in their Pool, will then advance to Round Two, or the Quarter Finals, of The Rugby World Cup.

Here is the List of the Four Pools for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and the 20 Teams that are divided amongst them:

The Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015
Pool A
----
This year, Pool A is often referred to as 
"The Pool of Death"
because there are 3, obvious, strong contenders
for the coveted, Top 2 spots; 
whereas, in Pools B, C, and D, 
there are only 2 competitors considered 
stronger in each respectively. 

The Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015
Pool B

The Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015
Pool C

The Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015
Pool D

Of the 20 Teams competing, 12 have qualified for this World Cup by finishing in the top Three positions of their respective Pools during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, while the remaining 8 Teams qualified throughout the Four-year time lapse with Regional Competitions.

The Team "line-up" for this 2015 World Cup matches that of the previous, 2011 World Cup "line-up" with but one exception, Uruguay has replaced Russia.