RWC8

Host Nation	Solenial
Association	International Rugby Union Board (IRB)
Top scorer	Matthew Robinson (15)
Top Try Scorer	Nkosazana Ntobo (14)
No. of Teams	16
Winner	Solenial
Runner-up	Ariddia
Third Place	Alba Scotland
Fourth Place	Sorthern Northland

Hosts NS

The 2007 Solenial Rugby World Cup was the eighth rugby union world cup. It was won by hosts Solenial. The pre-event favourites were Solenial and Starblaydia, with Ariddia, defending champions Snake Eaters and St Samuel all expected to make strong showings. A total of 16 nations took part in the competition. A number of them (such as Ariddia, Pa'atua, and Sorthern Northland) were making their débuts in the Rugby World Cup.

Venues

Solenial won the right to host the World Cup in 2007. The overall stadium capacity was increased from the 2003 Rugby World Cup in PopularFreedom.

The Gilbert Dome underwent a ¬ 20 million redevelopment for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, financed entirely by the Solenial Rugby Assosiation (SRA) with two new grandstands built adjacent to the Northern Concourse Gates. The Shararena was a new ¬ 280 million venue designed specifically for rugby, and was opened just before the start of the 2007 World Cup. The Trigonamd Stadium was also a newly built venue, and opened in February 2006 at a cost of ¬ 30 million.

Palthios Stadé was one of two venues in Coshastati that for Football during the 2000 PAFA Cup. The other venue in Coshastati was the Mulitii Stadium which was the centrepiece of the 2000 PAFA Cup. Formerly known as Stadium Solenia, Mulitii Stadium was built at a cost of over ¬ 600 million and was the biggest stadium used in the 2007 World Cup. The only stadium with a retractable roof used was the Gilbert Dome in Jevyol.

Controversy

Following Sorthern Northland's defeat to hosts Solenial in in the semi final the Sorthern Northland coach Joe Gondal claimed that his players may have lost the game due to drink spiking saying "We weren't our usual selfs today, you could see it in our game, and a number of our players woke and said they didn't feel right this morning, quite a few also complained that the beer served with breakfast tasted strange as well, as if there was more than it said on the bottle in it."[1] The Solen Rugby Union strongly denied the claims with the forwards coach Alfredo Hernándes said "I do believe it possible that this could have occured, but first of all before the competition Inspections were took out to make the Major Cities more Enjoyable for the RWC. There is not much chance any 'Extreme' fan getting their hands on drugs or anything like that. I do not believe Solenial has any kind of Unsportsmanship and hope that the Sortherners can enjoy their third-place game against the Albans." [2] Rather than doing the sensible thing and getting on with the competition the Sorthern Northland Rugby Association then decided to test the players urine samples for prove of drink tampering. A spokesman for them said "It is very blind sighted of the organisers to not admit this could be a possibility, so we've decided to take traces of our players urine and get them tested to prove our point." [3] The test results from the samples came back after the final and proved that the players had had their drinks spiked, but police in Solenial also provided CCTV evidence which clearly showed that the players drinks had been spiked by a member of the SNRA delegation. [4] Following these findings the SNRA were embarrassingly forced to apologise to the Solen Rugby Union. A spokesman for the association said "On behalf of the SNRA I would like to apologise to the SRFU for the unfounded allegations that our association made and also for bringing any negative publicity to this competition that has been organised so efficiently."

City	Stadium(s)	Capacity	Construction
Coshastati	Palithios Stadé Shararena	112,000 89,000	12/6/87 8/1/01	-

Squads

See [5]

Pool Stage

The top two teams from each of the four pools advanced to the quarter finals.

Pool A

Team	Won	Lost	For	Against	Points
Solenial	6	0	239	108	28
Kalaa	3	3	133	178	13
Mallatarsland	2	4	117	135	12
Milchama	2	4	131	149	12

Matchday One

Solenial 33-14 Milchama

Mallatarsland 10-13 Kalaa

Matchday Two

Solenial 34-10 Mallatarsland

Milchama 43-33 Kalaa

Matchday Three

Solenial 65-3 Kalaa

Milchama 15-17 Mallatarsland

Matchday Four

Solenial 27-13 Milchama

Mallatarsland 30-27 Kalaa

Matchday Five

Solenial 43-35 Mallatarsland

Milchama 43-24 Kalaa

Matchday Six

Solenial 37-33 Kalaa

Milchama 3-15 Mallatarsland

Group play off

Kalaa 35-13 Milchama

Milchama 23-25 Mallatarsland

Kalaa 12-10 Mallatarsland