Rugby: Rankings to be used for 2011 World Cup seedings

World rankings will be used to seed teams for the 2011 Rugby World Cup it was announced today.

The International Rugby Board said the pool allocation draw will take place in December and that rankings will dictate the tournament seeds for the first time. The cut-off date for the rankings will be December 1.

World Cup seedings have previously been determined by the results of the preceding tournament.

The 12 automatic qualifiers from last year's World Cup in France will be spread through the four 2011 pools based on their rankings. Twenty teams will contest the tournament, with the other eight determined by a series of worldwide qualifying matches.


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