Everything You Need to Know About the France Rugby World Cup Qualifiers

There are three main pathways to Rugby World Cup qualification:

• The first 12 teams automatically pre-qualify for the tournament based on their performance at the previous Rugby World Cup. This includes the reigning champions, semi-finalists, and the remaining three teams that finished top of each of the four pools.
• The next seven places are decided in regional tournaments (plus one cross-regional tournament).
• The final place in the tournament is awarded to the winner of the Final Qualification Tournament, a playoff between the runners-up of the various qualifying tournaments.

The 12 teams that pre-qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup based on their performance at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan are:

• South Africa (Winners)
• England (Runner-Up)
• New Zealand (Semi-Finalists)
• Wales (Semi-Finalists)
• France
• Australia
• Argentina
• Scotland
• Japan
• Ireland
• Italy
• Fiji

Seven teams are selected for Rugby World Cup qualification via the following qualifying tournaments:

• Two teams (Americas 1 and Americas 2) are selected from the Americas – Rugby Americas North (RAN) and Sudamerica Rugby (SAR) regions – during the RAN Championship and the SAR 3 Nations tournament. The two runners-up then go head-to-head in the Americas 2 playoff qualifier.
• Two teams (Europe 1 and Europe 2) are selected from Europe during the Rugby Europe Championship.
• One team (Africa 1) will qualify from Africa – the winner of the Rugby Africa Cup 2022.

• One team (Oceania 1) will qualify from the Oceania Region through a regional tournament. The runner-up will then play off against the winner of the Oceania Rugby Men’s Championship to decide the Oceania 2 candidate.
• Finally, the seventh qualifying team (Asia/Pacific 1) will be decided by a cross-regional qualifier between the Oceania 2 team and the winner of the Asian Rugby Men’s Championship 2021.

The very last spot in the Rugby World Cup is awarded to the winner of the Final Qualification Tournament (held in November 2022). This is a round-robin tournament between four teams:

• The third-placed team in the Americas 1 and Americas 2
• The third-placed team in the Europe 1 and Europe 2
• The runner-up of the Rugby Africa Cup 2022.
• The runner-up of the Asia/Pacific 1 qualifying match.

The twenty teams then form the four Rugby World Cup pools, which go on to compete against each other within the first phase of the Rugby World Cup tournament.