KEY POINTS:
The Rugby World Cup 2011 pool draw will be held on December 1 inside Tourism New Zealand's giant rugby ball venue in London.
The ball will be erected near Tower Bridge at Potters Field Park.
The 25-metre long, 12-metre high-ball was erected near the Eiffel Tower in Paris during the competition in 2007 to promote the country to tourists and business.
More than 24,000 people visited the ball and 70 per cent said they would visit New Zealand in the next couple of years.
Rugby New Zealand 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden said the draw would see 20 teams divided into four pools of five teams.
"For the first time... the seedings and the pools will be constructed around the use of the IRB (International Rugby Board) world rankings, the 12 automatically qualified teams will be banded together and the pools will be constructed from that."
The cut off for that would be midnight on November 30 after the All Blacks-England match Twickenham.
"I think this is something that, because it is new and because it has an air of unpredictability about it, will capture the attention of the international rugby media and will create a lot of excitement."
Snedden said the ball venue in London made sense as many northern and southern hemisphere teams "the elite of the rugby fraternity" would be in that part of the world.
He said the impact of the ball venue in Paris was terrific and made him proud to be a New Zealander.
"The continued use of the ball just creates a lovely link now between Rugby World Cup in 2007 and Rugby World Cup in 2011. It's amazing really to think of rugby being associated with these stand out icons in the world."
IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said the venue was a unique facility and was appropriate as New Zealand was to be the 2011 host.
"It is fitting that as it is in London during this time we have chosen to use the iconic facility for the draw."
The IRB today also unveiled its tournament event mark for 2011.
Lapasset said the previous mark had evolved over 20 years and needed to be refreshed.
The blue and green colouring and stylised ball insignia remained but the design was different.
The new mark was developed by the IRB in association with its commercial agent IMG and design house WiteKite from Sydney.
- NZPA
