The Rugby World Cup introduced bonus points in 2003. The tournament in Australia was the first World Cup to use a bonus-point system during the pool stage, rewarding teams for attacking ambition and close defeats.
The system awarded four points for a win, two for a draw and none for a loss. A team could earn one additional point by scoring at least four tries, while a losing team could also claim one bonus point if it lost by seven points or fewer.
The change followed criticism of the complicated format used at the 1999 World Cup. The 2003 tournament simplified the competition into four pools of five teams, with the top two from each pool advancing to the quarter-finals. Bonus points helped separate teams on the pool table and encouraged sides to keep attacking even after a match result was effectively decided.
The idea was not entirely new: bonus points had already been used widely in Southern Hemisphere rugby competitions. However, 2003 was the first time they appeared in the Rugby World Cup itself. The Six Nations adopted a comparable system much later, in 2017.