World ranking on 1 December 2008 to decide seeding for 2011

The International Rugby Board has revealed that their world rankings will be used to seed the 12 automatic qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup.

Previously, the seeding process for the pool stages was determined by performances at past World Cups. The 12 teams will be divided into three bands of four according to their world rankings, with one to four, five to eight and nine to 12 kept apart.

The 12 automatic qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup are the teams that finished in the top three in each pool of the previous competition in France: South Africa, England, Tonga, Argentina, France, Ireland, Australia, Fiji, Wales, New Zealand, Scotland and Italy.

We also have confirmation that the structure of the 2011 World Cup would be the same as the previous two, with four pools of five teams and the top two qualifying for the quarter-finals.

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