When rules is defined for rows, cols or groups, then the border-collapse value must be collapse according to CSS 2.1.

Table with rules="cols"
THead Row0 Cell0 THead Row0 Cell1 THead Row0 Cell2 THead Row0 Cell3 THead Row0 Cell4
THead Row1 Cell0 THead Row1 Cell1 THead Row1 Cell2 THead Row1 Cell3 THead Row1 Cell4
TFoot Row0 Cell0 TFoot Row0 Cell1 TFoot Row0 Cell2 TFoot Row0 Cell3 TFoot Row0 Cell4
TBody Row0 Cell0 TBody Row0 Cell1 TBody Row0 Cell2 TBody Row0 Cell3 TBody Row0 Cell4
TBody Row1 Cell0 TBody Row1 Cell1 TBody Row1 Cell2 TBody Row1 Cell3 TBody Row1 Cell4

Table with rules="rows"
THead Row0 Cell0 THead Row0 Cell1 THead Row0 Cell2 THead Row0 Cell3 THead Row0 Cell4
THead Row1 Cell0 THead Row1 Cell1 THead Row1 Cell2 THead Row1 Cell3 THead Row1 Cell4
TFoot Row0 Cell0 TFoot Row0 Cell1 TFoot Row0 Cell2 TFoot Row0 Cell3 TFoot Row0 Cell4
TBody Row0 Cell0 TBody Row0 Cell1 TBody Row0 Cell2 TBody Row0 Cell3 TBody Row0 Cell4
TBody Row1 Cell0 TBody Row1 Cell1 TBody Row1 Cell2 TBody Row1 Cell3 TBody Row1 Cell4

Table with rules="groups"
THead Row0 Cell0 THead Row0 Cell1 THead Row0 Cell2 THead Row0 Cell3 THead Row0 Cell4
THead Row1 Cell0 THead Row1 Cell1 THead Row1 Cell2 THead Row1 Cell3 THead Row1 Cell4
TFoot Row0 Cell0 TFoot Row0 Cell1 TFoot Row0 Cell2 TFoot Row0 Cell3 TFoot Row0 Cell4
TBody Row0 Cell0 TBody Row0 Cell1 TBody Row0 Cell2 TBody Row0 Cell3 TBody Row0 Cell4
TBody Row1 Cell0 TBody Row1 Cell1 TBody Row1 Cell2 TBody Row1 Cell3 TBody Row1 Cell4

Expected results: Section 17.6.1 of CSS 2.1 says "In this model [border-collapse: separate model], (...) Rows, columns, row groups, and column groups cannot have borders (i.e., user agents must ignore the border properties for those elements)."

Section 17.6.2 of CSS 2.1 says "In the collapsing border model, it is possible to specify borders that surround all or part of a cell, row, row group, column, and column group. Borders for HTML's 'rule[s]' attribute can be specified this way."

Firefox 2.x, Opera 9.x, Safari 3.0.4, NS 7.2, Seamonkey 1.x, Seamonkey 2.x, K-meleon 1.x, Galeon 2, Epiphany 2 all pass these 3 tests.

HTML 4.01 Strict compliant CSS compliant