2023 Rugby World Cup

World Rugby requested that any members wishing to host the 2023 event were to submit an expression of interest by June 2015. A total of six unions responded. The Italian Rugby Federation were among the members interested, but withdrew from their bid on 28 September 2016. The Argentine Rugby Union and USA Rugby both expressed their interest in hosting the event but ultimately decided against a formal bid. Three bids were officially submitted to World Rugby by the June 2017 deadline.

On 15 November 2017, the French Rugby Federation bid was chosen ahead of bids by the South African Rugby Union and the Irish Rugby Football Union. France had launched its bid on 9 February 2017.[5]

On 17 March 2017, twelve host cities were selected.[6][7] This list was later reduced to nine cities (excluding Paris, Montpellier and Lens):

Saint-Denis (Paris)	Marseille	Décines-Charpieu (Lyon)	Villeneuve-d'Ascq (Lille)
Stade de Franceab	Stade Vélodromea	Stade Lyon-Décines	Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Capacity: 80,698	Capacity: 67,394	Capacity: 59,186	Capacity: 50,186
Bordeaux	Saint-Denis Marseille Décines-Charpieu Villeneuve-d'Ascq Nantes Bordeaux Saint-Étienne Nice Toulouse
Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux
Capacity: 42,115
Saint-Étienne	Nice	Nantes	Toulouse
Stade Geoffroy-Guicharda	Stade de Nice	Stade de la Beaujoirea	Stadium Municipalab
Capacity: 41,965	Capacity: 35,624	Capacity: 35,322	Capacity: 33,150

^a Stadium/site used in 2007 Rugby World Cup. ^b Stadium/site used in 1999 Rugby World Cup.

Team base camps

National squads' base camps
Team City  Argentina La Baule-Escoublac  Australia Saint-Étienne  Chile Perros-Guirec  England Le Touquet  Fiji Lormont  France Rueil-Malmaison  Georgia Île de Ré  Ireland Tours  Italy Bourgoin-Jallieu  Japan Toulouse	Team City  Namibia Aix-les-Bains  New Zealand Lyon  Portugal Perpignan  Romania Libourne  Samoa Montpellier  Scotland Nice  South Africa Toulon  Tonga Croissy-sur-Seine  Uruguay Avignon  Wales Versailles

Qualification status:

  Qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup

  Failed to qualify

  Withdrew or suspended

Twenty teams are set to compete. A total of 12 teams gained automatic qualification for the tournament after finishing in the top three of their pool at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which included France already automatically qualified as host. The remaining eight spaces were decided by regional competitions followed by a few cross-regional play-offs.

Spain originally qualified as Europe 2, but Romania lodged an official complaint that Spain had fielded an ineligible player during the qualifying tournament. After a controversial investigation, it was concluded that the player in question had falsified his passport: Spain received a deduction of 10 points, resulting in them being effectively ejected from the competition, with Romania replacing them as Europe 2 and Portugal taking Romania's spot in the repechage tournament.[8]

On 18 November 2022, Portugal won the repechage tournament to be the last country to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was the first time that Canada did not qualify for the Rugby World Cup, the first time since 1995 that the United States did not qualify, and the first time three teams from South America qualified. This is the first Rugby World Cup without any participation from North America.

The below table shows the qualified teams as of 18 November 2022:

Qualified teams

Region	Team	Qualification method	Previous apps	Previous best result	World Rank¹
Africa	South Africa	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	7	Champions (1995, 2007, 2019)	4
	Namibia	Africa 1	6	Pool stage six times	21
Asia	Japan	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Quarter-finals (2019)	10
Europe	France	Hosts	9	Runners-up (1987, 1999, 2011)	2
	England	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Champions (2003)	5
	Ireland	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Quarter-finals (seven times)	1
	Italy	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Pool stage (nine times)	12
	Scotland	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Fourth place (1991)	6
	Wales	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Third place (1987)	9
	Georgia	Europe 1	5	Pool stage five times	13
	Romania	Europe 2	8	Pool stage (eight times)	20
	Portugal	Final Qualifier	1	Pool stage (2007)	18
Oceania	Australia	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Champions (1991, 1999)	8
	Fiji	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	8	Quarter-finals (1987, 2007)	14
	New Zealand	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Champions (1987, 2011, 2015)	3
	Samoa	Oceania 1	8	Quarter-finals (1991, 1995)	11
	Tonga	Asia/Pacific 1	8	Pool stage (eight times)	15
South America	Argentina	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Third place (2007)	7
	Uruguay	Americas 1	4	Pool stage (1999, 2003, 2015, 2019)	17
	Chile	Americas 2	0	Debut	22

¹as of 21 November 2022

The pool draw took place on 14 December 2020 in Paris.[9] The draw returned to its traditional place of the year following the previous World Cup, after the end-of-year internationals.

The seeding system from previous Rugby World Cups was retained with the 12 automatic qualifiers from 2019 being allocated to their respective bands based on their World Rugby Rankings on 1 January 2020:

• Band 1: The four highest-ranked teams
• Band 2: The next four highest-ranked teams
• Band 3: The final four directly qualified teams

The remaining two bands were made up of the eight qualifying teams, with allocation to each band being based on the previous Rugby World Cup playing strength:

• Band 4: – Oceania 1, Europe 1, Americas 1, Asia/Pacific 1
• Band 5: – Africa 1, Europe 2, Americas 2, Final Qualifier Winner

This meant the 20 teams, qualified and qualifiers, were seeded thus (world ranking as of 1 January 2020):

World Rugby named the following 12 referees, seven assistant referees and for the first time an expanded television match officials team of seven to handle the 48 matches:[10]

Amongst the squad, Wayne Barnes will officiate at a record fifth Rugby World Cup, whilst Nika Amashukeli will become the first Georgian referee in the World Cup and first Tier 2 representative to referee a game since the game turned professional. Matthew Carley, Karl Dickson and Andrew Brace will make their first appearance in a World Cup as a referee and Joy Neville becomes the first female named on match official panel for a men’s Rugby World Cup.

The knockout stage will consist of three single-elimination rounds culminating in a final and a third-place playoff. In the case of a tie in regulation time, two 10-minute periods of extra time will be played to determine a winner. If the scores are tied at the end of extra time, an additional 10-minute "sudden death" period will be played, with the first team to score any points being the winner. If the score still remains tied, a kicking competition will ensue.

•  France – TF1 Group,[11] France 2 et M6
•  Netherlands – Ziggo Sport[12]
•  South Africa – SuperSport
•  United Kingdom – ITV[13]
•  United States – NBC Sports[14]
•  Australia – Stan Sport (all matches) and Nine Network (all Australia matches and the final)[15]
•  Italy – RAI and Sky Sport Italia[16]
•  New Zealand – Sky Sport (New Zealand)[17]
•  Ireland – RTÉ and Virgin Media[18]

• History of the Rugby World Cup
• 2023 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2023 Rugby World Cup.

• Official website