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The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in rugby union's professional era.〔The International Rugby Board did not open up the sport to professionals until August 1995, after the previous World Cup had been completed.〕 The principal host nation was Wales, although the majority of matches were played outside the country, shared between England, France, Scotland and Ireland. As the opening ceremony, first match and the Final would take place in Cardiff, Wales, the Welsh team were awarded the automatic qualification berth afforded the hosts. Only four automatic qualification places were available for the 1999 tournament; the other three went to the top three teams from the previous World Cup in 1995; champions (South Africa), runners-up (New Zealand), and third-place play-off winners (France). Qualification for the final 16 places took place between 63 other nations. The tournament was expanded to 20 teams (from 16), divided into five pools of four teams, a scenario that necessitated a quarter-final play-off round involving the five runners-up and best third-placed team to decide who would join the pool winners in the last eight. The 1999 tournament saw the introduction of a repechage, effectively a second chance for teams that had finished runners-up in each qualifying zone. Uruguay and Tonga were the first nations to profit from the repechage, and took their places alongside fellow qualifiers Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa, Romania, Canada, Namibia, Japan, Spain and the United States. The tournament began with the opening ceremony in the newly built Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with Wales beating Argentina 23–18, and Colin Charvis scoring the first try of the tournament. Australia won the tournament, becoming the first nation to do so twice and also to date the only team ever to win after having to qualify for the tournament, with a 35–12 triumph over France, who were unable to repeat their semi-final victory over pre-tournament favourites New Zealand. The overall attendance for the tournament was 1.75 million. ==Qualifying== (詳細は1995 and the tournament host, Wales. A record 65 nations from five continents were therefore involved in the qualification process designed to fill the remaining 16 spots. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1999 Rugby World Cup」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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