The 1995 Rugby World Cup () was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country.
The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in South Africa following the end of apartheid. It was also the first World Cup in which South Africa was allowed to compete; the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, now World Rugby) had only readmitted South Africa to international rugby in 1992, following negotiations to end apartheid. The World Cup was also the last major event of rugby union's amateur era; two months after the tournament, the IRFB opened the sport to professionalism.
In the final, held at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 24 June, South Africa defeated New Zealand 15–12, with Joel Stransky scoring a drop goal in extra time to win the match. Following South Africa's victory, Nelson Mandela, the President of South Africa, wearing a Springboks rugby shirt and cap, presented the Webb Ellis Cup to the South African captain François Pienaar.
Qualifying
{| class="wikitable"
!Africa
!Americas
!Europe
!Oceania/Asia
|-
|
- (Africa)
|
- (Americas)
|
- (Europe 2)
- (Europe 3)
- (Europe 1)
|
- (Oceania)
- (Asia)
|}
The eight quarter-finalists from the 1991 Rugby World Cup all received automatic entry, as did South Africa, as hosts. The remaining seven of the 16 positions available in the tournament were filled by regional qualifiers. The qualifying tournaments were broken up into regional associations: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Côte d'Ivoire qualified through Africa, Japan through Asia, Argentina through the Americas, Italy, Romania and Wales through Europe, Tonga through Oceania.
Squads
Referees
Venues
The 1995 tournament was the first Rugby World Cup to be hosted by just one country, and thus, all the venues are within the one country. South Africa were given the rights to host the tournament in 1993, after a meeting between the IRB and both the government led by F. W. de Klerk and the African National Congress. In total, nine stadiums were used for the World Cup, most being owned by local municipalities, and the majority of the venues were upgraded prior to the tournament. Six of the nine stadiums were South African Test grounds. The four largest stadiums were used for the finals, with the final taking place at Johannesburg's Ellis Park.
There were games originally scheduled to have been played in Brakpan, Germiston, Pietermaritzburg and Witbank, but these games were reallocated to other venues. This reduced the number of venues from 14 to 9. The reasons cited for this change had to do with facilities for both the press and spectators, as well as the security. The change in the itinerary occurred in January 1994. Further changes occurred in April, so that evening games were played at stadiums with good floodlighting. It is also thought that Potchefstroom was an original venue.
Venues were paired:
- Pool 1: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Stellenbosch
- Pool 2: Durban and East London
- Pool 3: Johannesburg and Bloemfontein
- Pool 4: Pretoria and Rustenburg
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan=12 colspan=3|
!Johannesburg
!Pretoria
!Cape Town
|-
|Ellis Park
|Loftus Versfeld
|Newlands
|-
|Capacity: 60,000
|Capacity: 50,000
|Capacity: 50,000
|-
|200px
|200px
|200px
|-
!Durban
!Bloemfontein
!Port Elizabeth
|-
|Kings Park Stadium
|Free State Stadium
|Boet Erasmus Stadium
|-
|Capacity: 50,000
|Capacity: 40,000
|Capacity: 38,950
|-
|200px
|200px
|200px
|-
!Rustenburg
!East London
!Stellenbosch
|-
|Olympia Park
|Basil Kenyon Stadium
|Danie Craven Stadium
|-
|Capacity: 30,000
|Capacity: 22,000
|Capacity: 16,000
|-
|rowspan=2|
|
|
|}
Pools & format
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Pool A
!Pool B
!Pool C
!Pool D
|-
|
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
|
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
|
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
|
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
|}
The tournament was contested by 16 nations using the same format that was used in 1987 and 1991 and in total 32 matches were played. The competition began on 25 May, when the hosts South Africa defeated Australia 27–18 at Newlands in Cape Town. The tournament culminated with the final between South Africa and the All Blacks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 24 June. In total, the tournament ran for thirty days. The nations were broken up into four pools of four, with each pool consisting of two teams that were automatically qualified and two that went through the qualifying tournaments.
Points system
The points system that was used in the pool stage was unchanged from 1991:
- 3 points for a win
- 2 points for a draw
- 1 point for playing
Knockout stage
Pool winners were drawn against opposite pool runners-up in the quarter-finals. For example, the winner of A faces the runner up of B, and the winner of B face the runner-up of A. The whole finals stage adopts a knock-out format, and the winners of the quarter-finals advance to the semi-finals, where winner 1 faces winner 2, and winner 3 faces winner 4. The winners advance to the final, and the losers contest a third/fourth place play-off two days before the final.
A total of 32 matches (24 pool stage & 8 knock-out) were played throughout the tournament over 30 days from 25 May to 24 June 1995.
Pool stage
Pool A
----
----
----
----
----