The 2003 Rugby World Cup was staged in Australia, the land of the defending champions; the first time the Rugby World Cup had been defended on home soil.  In a modification from the tournament in 1999, the competition consisted of four pools of five competing nations.  With every team playing four matches each, the first and second placed in the pool would qualify for the quarter-final stages.  In another alteration from tournaments passed, a bonus point system was introduced so that even losing teams had the possibility to notch up a score.  One bonus point would be awarded to a team scoring four or greater tries and similarly, one bonus point would be awarded to a team losing by seven points or less.

Of the twenty teams that entered the 2003 World Cup, eight had automatically qualified from the previous competition.  Those that had reached the quarter-finals in 1999 progressed via the direct route to the tournament: England, Wales, France, Scotland, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia - who would have qualified by virtue as host nation had they not been the champions in the previous tournament. A record 81 countries battled it out for the twelve remaining places in the 2003 competition, with Canada, the USA, Uruguay, Japan, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Namibia, Ireland, Italy, Romania and Georgia (for the first time) successfully making up the numbers.