A record 65 nations from five continents were therefore involved in the qualification process designed to fill the remaining 16 spots.

An agreement was reached so that the other unions in the Five Nations Championship (England, France, Ireland and Scotland) also hosted matches.

Venues in Ireland included Lansdowne Road, the traditional home of the Irish Rugby Football Union; Ravenhill Stadium; and Thomond Park.

The tournament began on 1 October 1999 in the newly built Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with Wales beating Argentina in a hard-fought game 23–18 to get their campaign off to a positive start.

The Pool stage of the tournament played out as was widely expected with the Tri Nations teams of New Zealand (who inflected a massive 101–3 win against Italy at the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield), South Africa and Australia all winning their pools easily without losing a single game.

Host Wales also won their pool, though they suffered 31–38 defeat at the hands of Samoa in front of a home crowd at the Millennium Stadium.

However, as expected England, Ireland and Scotland all finished second in their pools and were forced to try to qualify for the quarter-finals via the play-offs alongside fellow runners-up Samoa and Fiji, and Argentina as the best third placed side from all five pools, having been the only third-placed side to win two matches (against Samoa and Japan).

England, hosts Wales and Scotland were all knocked out, and France, who beat Argentina, were the only team left from the Northern Hemisphere.

The semi-finals, which were both played at Twickenham Stadium, produced two of the most dramatic matches of the tournament, with Australia beating South Africa 27–21 in extra-time after normal time ended with the scores locked at 18-18.

Jonah Lomu scored the most tries, eight in total, a rugby world cup record.