The five best Rugby World Cup 2019™ shots hand-picked by a Getty Images editor

When he first saw Shaun Botterill's image above, James says: "The thing that stood out was the Oita stadium itself. Photographically, it was probably the stadium that stood out the most throughout the whole tournament. Most of the pictures taken there were shot when it was darker, so the roof of the stadium is pitch black. But this was one of the rare matches that took place earlier in the day, so you can see the amazing architecture of the roof. It was taken with a Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM wide-angle lens, which shows the whole stadium.

"When you add the three France fans, with all their flags showing the three colours, plus the large number of fans in the frame, it makes an incredible atmospheric shot. This picture definitely would have been picked up for the live internet blogs, because it tells a story of the match: you can see the players walking out onto the pitch in the background and you can sense the crowd's excitement and anticipation."

James says: "Out of all the crunching tackle pictures taken during Rugby World Cup 2019™, I love this one for several reasons. For one thing, the New Zealand player is off the ground between two England players who have picked him up and are marching him back to where they want him to be. Also, his facial expression is great and I like the symmetry of the two players either side of the frame. They're both looking back at what's happening and their faces say it all. From a rugby photographer's perspective, you ideally want a massive impact in a peak action image, so it's a perfect shot.

"The contrasting emotion of the two sets of players in this shot is just incredible," says James. "It was taken at the final whistle in the Rugby World Cup™ final. The referee has his hand in the air and the whistle to his mouth, so you know it's the exact moment the match ended. It's the moment the South African players knew they'd won the Rugby World Cup™ and the moment the England players realised it hadn't gone their way.

James says: "Japan's team did so well in the tournament and were a breath of fresh air throughout. This shot was taken just after Japan had scored a try during the match against Scotland, which was one of Japan's big wins in the group matches. This image sums up the pure emotion of the moment and how much it meant to the Japanese team.