The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005. The IRB Council eliminated South Africa in the first of two rounds of voting.

The tournament was won by New Zealand, who defeated France 8–7 in the final.South Africa, the defending champions, were eliminated by Australia 11–9 in the quarter-finals.

It was the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, eclipsing the 1987 Rugby World Cup, 1990 Commonwealth Games, 1992 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 America's Cup. Overseas visitors to New Zealand for the event totalled 133,000, more than the 95,000 that the organisers expected. However there was a drop in non-event visitors, meaning the net increase in visitors over the previous year was less than 80,000.

The games ran over six weeks commencing with the Rugby World Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony showcasing New Zealand's vast history and diverse cultures on 9 September 2011. The final was played on Sunday 23 October 2011, a date chosen because it fell on a long weekend caused by the New Zealand public holiday of Labour Day (Monday, 24 October 2011). The final was played at Eden Park in Auckland.

The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987.

The winners are awarded the William Webb Ellis Cup, named after William Webb Ellis, the Rugby School pupil who – according to a popular myth – invented rugby football by picking up the ball during a game. New Zealand are the current holders, having won the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. The hosts for 2015 and 2019 will be England and Japan respectively.

Qualifying tournaments were introduced for the second tournament, where eight of the sixteen places were contested in a twenty-four-nation tournament. The inaugural World Cup in 1987, did not involve any qualifying process; instead, the 16 places were automatically filled by seven eligible International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, now, International Rugby Board) member nations, and the rest by invitation.

The current format allows for twelve of the twenty available positions to be filled by automatic qualification, as the teams who finish third or better in the group (pool) stages of the previous tournament enter its successor (where they will be seeded). The qualification system for the remaining eight places is region-based, with Europe and the Americas allocated two qualifying places each, Africa, Asia and Oceania one place each, with the last place determined by a play-off.

A World Cup is a type of sporting competition.

World Cup commonly refers to:

World Cup can also refer to:

Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987) is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Pure is the fastest-selling international début classical album to date, having made Westenra an international star at age 16. In August 2006, she joined the Irish group Celtic Woman, was featured on their Celtic Woman: A New Journey CD and DVD, toured with them on their 2007 Spring Tour, and also was featured on their DVD, The Greatest Journey: Essential Collection, released in 2008.

Across classical music to easy listening, folk and pop style songs, Westenra has performed songs in English, Irish, Welsh, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese and Māori from west to east, north to south all around the world.

Westenra has performed for dignitaries around the world. She is the second youngest UNICEF Ambassador to date and has contributed to charities around the world.