2002 Women's Rugby World Cup

2002 Women's Rugby World Cup

Tournament details
Host nation	Spain
Dates	2002-05-13 – 2002-05-25
No. of nations	16
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32

The 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup was the second World Cup fully sanctioned by the sports governing body the International Rugby Board (IRB). The tournament was held in Barcelona, Spain. The format was the same as the previous tournament and again 16 nations competed.

For the first time a pre-tournament qualification match took place to decide Asia's second representative but other than that all competitors took part by invitation. 14 of the 16 teams taking part were the same as in 1998 but two lowest ranked European teams (Sweden and Russia) were replaced by teams from Asia (Japan) and Oceania (Samoa).

The competition was won by defending champions, New Zealand.

Squads

Main article: 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup squads

Competition format

The format was the same as the previous tournament and again 16 nations competed. The teams were divided into four pools of four teams each, according to each team's seeding.

For the first set of matches the highest seeded team played the lowest seeded team while the two mid-seeded teams played each other. After the first round of matches the positions in each pool were recalculated with the winners of the first matches in first and second places, and the losers in third and fourth places. In the second set of matches, the top two teams and the bottom two teams from each pool played each other. The final pool standings were calculated from the results of these matches to give the final four positions in each pool.

The four top teams in each of the pools went forward to contest the World Cup title. The second placed teams from each pool play for 5th position (the Plate), the third place teams for 9th (the Bowl), and the fourth placed teams for 13th (the Shield). The four teams in each of these groups are reseeded to decide who plays who at this stage of the tournament.

The two winning teams from each of these 'semi-finals' then faced each other in the 'final', whilst the losing teams played each other.

World Cup Tournament

Although not strictly speaking a knock-out as – in theory – a team losing a game on Day 1 could still qualify dependent on results on Day 2, in practice this was a complex tournament that is best understood by means of the following graphics. Note that this should not be taken to imply that the draw for any round of games was predetermined – each successive round was drawn using seedings and rankings based on previous matches:

Cup (positions 1–4)

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

May 13, 2002 – Pool A

[[Germany women's national rugby union team|Germany]]

0

May 17, 2002 – Pool A

[[New Zealand women's national rugby union team|New Zealand]]

117

Australia

3

May 13, 2002 – Pool A

New Zealand

36

Australia

30

May 20, 2002 – Semi-final

Wales

0

[[New Zealand women's national rugby union team|New Zealand]]

30

May 13, 2002 – Pool B

France

0

[[United States women's national rugby union team|United States]]

87

May 17, 2002 – Pool B

Netherlands

0

United States

9

May 13, 2002 – Pool B

France

21

France

31

May 25, 2002 – Final

Kazakhstan

12

[[New Zealand women's national rugby union team|New Zealand]]

19

May 13, 2002 – Pool C

England

9

[[England women's national rugby union team|England]]

63

May 17, 2002 – Pool C

Italy

9

[[England women's national rugby union team|England]]

13

May 13, 2002 – Pool C

Spain

5

Spain

62

May 20, 2002 – Semi-final

Japan

0

[[England women's national rugby union team|England]]

53

May 13, 2002 – Pool D

Canada

10

3rd Place final

[[Canada women's national rugby union team|Canada]]

57

May 17, 2002 – Pool D

May 25, 2002 – 3rd Place Final

Ireland

0

[[Canada women's national rugby union team|Canada]]

11

[[France women's national rugby union team|France]]

41

May 13, 2002 – Pool D

Scotland

0

Canada

7

Scotland

13

Samoa

3

Ranking matches 5–8

Teams knocked out in the Cup quarter-finals

	Semi-finals				Final
	May 20, 2002
	Australia	17
					May 25, 2002 – 5th Place Final
	[[United States women's national rugby union team|United States]]	5
					[[Australia women's national rugby union team|Australia]]	30
	May 20, 2002
					Scotland	0
	Spain	16
	[[Scotland women's national rugby union team|Scotland]]	23
					7th Place Final
					May 25, 2002 – 7th Place Final
					[[United States women's national rugby union team|United States]]	23
					Spain	5

Ranking matches 9–16

Teams defeated in the first round of pool matches

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	May 18, 2002 – Pool A
	Germany	0
					May 20, 2002
	Wales	77
					[[Wales women's national rugby union team|Wales]]	35
	May 18, 2002 – Pool C
					Italy	3
	[[Italy women's national rugby union team|Italy]]	30
									May 24, 2002 – 9th Place Final
	Japan	3
									Wales	14
	May 18, 2002 – Pool D
									[[Samoa women's national rugby union team|Samoa]]	17
	Ireland	0
					May 20, 2002
	Samoa	22
					[[Samoa women's national rugby union team|Samoa]]	14
	May 18, 2002 – Pool B
					[[Kazakhstan women's national rugby union team|Kazakhstan]]	3			11th Place Final
	Netherlands	10
									May 24, 2002 – 11th Place Final
	Kazakhstan	37
									Italy	3
									[[Kazakhstan women's national rugby union team|Kazakhstan]]	20

Ranking matches 13–16

Teams defeated in the first round of the ranking matches for 9–16

	Semi-finals				Final
	May 20, 2002
	Germany	0
					May 24, 2002 – 13th Place Final
	[[Ireland women's national rugby union team|Ireland]]	18
					Ireland	0
	May 20, 2002
					Japan	18
	Japan	37
	Netherlands	3
					15th Place Final
					May 24, 2002 – 15th Place Final
					Germany	19
					Netherlands	20

Match details

Pool A

Position	Nation	Games				Points		Table points	Overall ranking
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against
1	New Zealand	2	2	0	0	153	3	6	1st
2	Australia	2	1	0	1	33	36	4	8th
3	Wales	2	1	0	1	77	30	4	9th
4	Germany	2	0	0	2	0	194	2	16th

Pool B

Position	Nation	Games				Points		Table points	Overall ranking
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against
1	France	2	2	0	0	52	21	6	4th
2	United States	2	1	0	1	96	21	4	5th
3	Kazakhstan	2	1	0	1	49	41	4	11th
4	Netherlands	2	0	0	2	10	124	2	14th

Pool C

Position	Nation	Games				Points		Table points	Overall ranking
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against
1	England	2	2	0	0	76	14	6	3rd
2	Spain	2	1	0	1	67	13	4	6th
3	Italy	2	1	0	1	39	66	4	12th
4	Japan	2	0	0	2	3	92	2	15th

Pool D

Position	Nation	Games				Points		Table points	Overall ranking
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against
1	Canada	2	2	0	0	67	0	6	2nd
2	Scotland	2	1	0	1	13	14	4	7th
3	Samoa	2	1	0	1	25	13	4	10th
4	Ireland	2	0	0	2	0	79	2	13th

Finals

Final

2002 Women's Rugby World Cup Winners
New Zealand Second title

Final Table

Place	Nation	Games		Points
		won	lost	for	against	diff
1	New Zealand	4	0	202	12	+190
2	England	3	1	138	43	+95
3	France	3	1	93	58	+35
4	Canada	2	2	85	94	−9
5	United States	3	1	137	26	+111
6	Scotland	2	2	41	53	−12
7	Australia	2	2	63	54	+9
8	Spain	1	3	83	66	+17
9	Samoa	3	1	56	30	+26
10	Wales	2	2	126	50	+76
11	Kazakhstan	2	2	72	58	+14
12	Italy	1	3	45	121	−76
13	Japan	2	2	58	95	−37
14	Ireland	1	3	18	97	−79
15	Netherlands	1	3	33	180	−147
16	Germany	0	4	19	232	−213

External links

• IRB reports (from Webarchive)
• Information on the 2002 Women's Rugby World Championship (in Spanish)