Twenty nations will compete in the Rugby World Cup 2007. The finals tournament, held mainly in France but with some matches played in Cardiff and Edinburgh, will take place between 7th September and 20th October, and the matches will be spread between 12 stadiums.

Portugal, where rugby is an amateur sport, is contending for the first time - the first time in the history of the Rugby World Cup that a country where rugby is not played professionally has reached the major tournament.

The Rugby World Cup is the world's third largest sporting event, in terms of audience, after the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games. It is held every four years since 1987, following a long qualifying process. Qualification of the twenty teams for the finals tournament began in 2004 and involved around 200 matches between teams from over 100 nations.

Over a century after this sport came to Portugal, after an epic qualifying tournament in which they achieved impressive results and beat theoretically stronger teams, the "Lobos" (wolves), as the Portuguese rugby team are known, are about to make history, playing in the world cup against such formidable opponents as Scotland, New Zealand, Italy and Romania.

Date of Issue: 22 August 2007