The 2023 Rugby World Cup is scheduled to be the tenth men's

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...

, the quadrennial world championship for men's

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

teams. It is scheduled to take place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening match and final will take place at the

Stade de France The Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national foo ...

, in the commune of Saint-Denis, north of Paris. The tournament will take place in the bicentenary year of the "invention" of the sport by William Webb Ellis. Originally, the tournament was scheduled to last the typical six weeks; however, on 23 February 2021, World Rugby announced an additional week to accommodate the additional rest day requirement for player welfare. This means that teams will have a minimum of five rest days for all matches, optimising recovery and preparation for the tournament. It will be the third time France has hosted the Rugby World Cup, having previously hosted the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

, as well as the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

as joint hosts with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It precedes the

2024 Summer Olympics ) , nations = TBA , athletes = 10,500 ''(quota limit)'' , events = 329 in 32 sports (48 disciplines) , opening = 26 July 2024 , closing = 11 August 2024 , opened_by = , stadium = Stade de France Jardins du Trocadéro and River Seine , summe ...

in Paris and will take place less than a year before the Olympic opening ceremony. The defending champions are

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, who defeated

32–12 in the 2019 final.

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

will make its first ever appearance at the Rugby World Cup, and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

will return for its second appearance, after 16 years.

Host country selection

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

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 The Italian Rugby Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Rugby) or FIR is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy. The FIR has one seat on the 28-member World Rugby Council, the governing body of World Rugby. (All other members of ...

were among the members interested, but withdrew from their bid on 28 September 2016. The Argentine Rugby Union and

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of ru ...

both expressed their interest in hosting the event but ultimately decided against a formal bid. Three bids were officially submitted to

by the June 2017 deadline. On 15 November 2017, the

French Rugby Federation The French Rugby Federation (french: Fédération Française de Rugby (''FFR'')) is the governing body for rugby union in France. It is responsible for the French national team and the Ligue nationale de rugby that administers the country's profe ...

bid was chosen ahead of bids by the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

and the Irish Rugby Football Union. France had launched its bid on 9 February 2017.

Venues

On 17 March 2017, twelve host cities were selected. This list was later reduced to nine cities (excluding Paris, Montpellier and

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

): ^a Stadium/site used in

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

Team base camps

Qualifying

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 The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

, which included France already automatically qualified as host. The remaining eight spaces will be decided by regional competitions followed by a few cross-regional play-offs.

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

originally qualified as Europe 2, but

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

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

taking Romania's spot in the repechage tournament. On 18 November 2022,

won the repechage tournament to be the last country to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was the first time ever that

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

did not qualify for the Rugby World Cup, the first time since

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

that the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

did not qualify, and the first time three teams from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

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: ¹as of 21 November 2022

Draw

The pool draw took place on 14 December 2020 in Paris. 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 The World Rugby Rankings (formerly the IRB Rankings) is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. There are separate men's and women's rankings. The teams of World Rugby's member nation ...

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):

Pool stage

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout stage

The knockout stage of the Rugby World Cup will consist of three

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

rounds leading to a final and a third-place playoff. Following a tie in regulation time, two 10-minute periods of extra time will be used to determine a winner. If the scores are tied at the end of extra time, an additional 10-minute "sudden death" period is played, with the first team to score any points being declared the winner. If the score remains tied at the end of extra time, a kicking competition would ensue.

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Bronze final

Final

Broadcasting

* – TF1 Group * – Ziggo Sport * – SuperSport * – ITV * – NBC Sports * –

Stan Sport Stan (stylized as Stan.) is an Australian over-the-top streaming service. It was launched on 26 January 2015. Stan originally was founded as StreamCo Media, a 50/50 joint venture between Nine Entertainment Co. and Fairfax Media. In August 2014, ...

(all matches) and Nine Network (all Australia matches and the final) * –

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

and Sky Sport Italia * –

Sky Sport (New Zealand) Sky Sport is a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by New Zealand's satellite pay-TV company, Sky. History Sky Sport 1 is the original Sky Television sport channel in New Zealand. It was first introduced in 1990 as Sky Spo ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

2023 in rugby union 2023–24 in French rugby union International rugby union competitions hosted by France World Cup 2023