The All Blacks' final Rugby World Cup pool match against Italy has been cancelled, due to the impending Typhoon Hagibis.
World Rugby have this afternoon announced that Hagibis has seen Saturday's All Blacks-Italy and England-France matches all called off, seeing each match go down as a scoreless draw in the tournament standings.
No matches in the 32-year history of the Rugby World Cup have ever been abandoned until now, with the looming category five typhoon wrecking the plans of tournament organisers.
Australia's match with Georgia tomorrow and Ireland's match with Samoa are going ahead as planned.
The All Blacks v Italy clash is one of two games cancelled.
The teams whose matches are cancelled will collect two points each, meaning New Zealand finishes top of group B ahead of South Africa.
Addressing media in Japan, World Rugby's Chief Operations Officer Alan Gilpin said safety was their main concern, with the weather system likely to cause significant disruption.
"As you can imagine, the decision to cancel these matches has not been taken lightly, and has been made with the best interest of team, public, tournament and volunteer safety as a priority, based on the expert advice and the detailed information we have available," he said.
Should their final match be called off due to weather, Ireland would be eliminated in the pool stage.
"The risks are just too challenging to enable us to deliver a fair and consistent contingency approach for all teams and participants, and importantly to provide confidence in the safety of spectators."
No word has been given on the potential Pool A deciding match between hosts Japan and Scotland, scheduled for Sunday NZT.
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