The
2019 Rugby World Cup will be the ninth
Rugby World Cup. At a special meeting of the sport's governing body, the
International Rugby Board (IRB; known as World Rugby from November 2014), held in
Dublin on 28 July 2009,
England and
Japan were announced as the hosts for the
2015 and 2019 competitions, respectively. This will be the first time the tournament is to be held in
Asia, the first time consecutive tournaments have been staged in the same hemisphere, and also the first time that the event will take place outside the traditional
heartland of the sport.
Hong Kong and
Singapore had expressed interest in hosting some of the matches and were included as part of the JRFU's successful original hosting bid to the IRB but were not amongst the fourteen locations announced by organisers Japan 2019 on 5 November 2014 that had formally bid for the right to host games.