This article presents the national team appearances in the Rugby World Cup. The article tracks the appearances, results, and debuts for all national teams that have participated in at least one

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 E ...

Number of appearances

Tournament appearances by team, up to and including 2019:

Results by tournament

Rugby world cup countries best results and hosts rev1

;Legend For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

Debut of national teams

26 nations have thus far qualified for the Rugby World Cup. From 1987 until 2011, each edition featured at least one new debuting country. The 2015 tournament was the first edition with no country making its debut. It simply featured the return of Uruguay after not qualifying for the 2007 and 2011 editions. The 2019 was the same, with Romania disqualified and replaced by Russia.

Result of host nations

The best result by hosts is champions, achieved by

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

and 2011, and by

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

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 ...

. The worst result was by

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 ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

with only one win in pool play, although they did not host the final. The worst result by a country who hosted the final is held by

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 b ...

, being eliminated in the group stage in 2015.

Results of defending champions

New Zealand is the only nation to successfully defend the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

as defending champions in 2015. Australia and

achieved runner up in 2003 and 2007, respectively. The worst results were by Australia in

and South Africa in 2011, both exiting in the quarter-finals.

Performance by confederation

This is a summary of the best performances of each confederation in each tournament.

Number of teams by confederation

This is a summary of the total number of participating teams by confederation in each tournament.

Appearance droughts

This section is a list of droughts associated with the participation of national rugby union teams in the Rugby World Cups.

Longest active droughts

''Does not include teams that have not yet made their first appearance or teams that no longer exist.''

Longest droughts overall

''Only includes droughts begun after a team's first appearance and until the team ceased to exist updated to include

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

for 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 ...

.''

References

External links

Rugbyworldcup.com

IRB.com
{{Rugby Union World Cup Rugby World Cup Rugby union records and statistics