The 1999 Rugby World Cup (Welsh: Cwpan Rygbi'r Byd 1999) was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professional era.
Four automatic qualification places were available for the 1999 tournament; Wales qualified automatically as hosts, and the other three places went to the top three teams from the previous World Cup in 1995: champions South Africa, runners-up New Zealand and third-placed France. 63 nations took part in the qualification process, with 14 nations progressing directly to the tournament. the remaining two qualifiers were determined by a repechage, introduced for the first time in the tournaments history. This was also the first World Cup to feature 20 teams (expanded from 16).