The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World Cup Limited. The pre-event favorites were England, regarded by many at the time as the best team in the world after defeating all of the traditional southern hemisphere teams and also after winning the grand slam in the 2003 Six Nations Championship and New Zealand, with France, South Africa and defending champions Australia all expected to make strong showings.

The tournament began with host nation Australia defeating Argentina 24–8 at Telstra Stadium in Sydney. Australia went on to defeat New Zealand 22–10 in the semifinal, to play England in the final. Along with a try to Jason Robinson, Jonny Wilkinson kicked four penalties and then a drop-goal in extra time to win the game 20–17 for England, who became the first northern hemisphere team to win the Webb Ellis Cup and become world champions for the first time.

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:

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