Andres Neil

Many of the top teams from around the world will be heading to France to battle it out amongst themselves to claim the Webb Ellis Cup.

There will be 20 nations in total that will take part in the tournament, which will take place over the months of September and October. And whilst some teams have already confirmed their attendance, there are still numerous qualification places up for grabs. But how do teams qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup?

Rugby World Cup Qualification

There are numerous ways to qualify for the Rugby World Cup, with the first by being one of the best performing teams at the previous tournament, which occurs on a four-yearly basis. For the 2023 tournament, that means that the 2019 Rugby World Cup almost becomes a qualification tournament in itself, with 12 teams being given entry into the next tournament. So even if you don’t win, there is still a lot to play for in every game.

It would end up being South Africa who won that tournament, beating England 32-12, with New Zealand beating Wales 40-17 in the Bronze final. All of these teams therefore qualified for the 2023 World Cup, with the remaining eight teams consisting of the remaining best ranking sides from the tournament. A full list of all twelve teams who qualified through the 2019 World Cup can be found below:

• South Africa
• England
• New Zealand
• Wales
• Japan
• France
• Australia
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Italy
• Argentina
• Fiji

The remaining eight competitors will all qualify through other competitions, with one coming from Oceania, Asia/Pacific, Africa and a Final Qualification Tournament, and two teams from the Americas and Europe.

So far, only two teams have qualified for the tournament. The first team is Samoa who qualified as the Oceania representative, beating Tonga twice over two legs, 42-13 in the first and 15-37 in the second. However, that wasn’t the end of the road for Tonga, because they then moved over to an Asia/Pacific qualifier for another chance to make the World Cup. They then beat the Cook Islands 54-10 to progress to the Asia/Pacific play-off, where they await a winner of the Asia Rugby Championship 2021 to play for another spot in the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The second team that has qualified is Uruguay, who took the first Americas spot by beating the USA over two legs, coming from behind after losing the first leg 19-16, but turning it around in the second leg by beating the USA 34-15. But like Tonga, the USA would get a second chance in the second Americas play off. There they are to meet Chile, who after knocking Canada out in a qualifier, are on the verge of making their first ever Rugby World Cup if they are able to come out on top over another two legged affair.

The runner up from those playoffs will then go into a Final Qualification Tournament, where four teams will meet. The other three consist of; the runner-up to the Asia/Pacific playoff, the runner up of the Rugby Africa Cup 2021 with the winner of that going through to the World Cup in the Africa spot, and the third-place nation of the Rugby Europe Championship 2021 & 2022 with the winners and first runner up going through in the two European qualification spots.

That means as it stands, there are still six spots up for grabs. One from Asia/Pacific, Africa and the Americas, two from Europe, and the final spot being for the Final Qualification Tournament.

Who are the favourites for the 2023 Rugby World Cup?

Whilst not all the teams have qualified, the best ranked sides in the world are those who managed to earn one of the twelve spots from performing well in the last World Cup. According to some of the top online sportsbooks, it is the All Blacks who are favourite to win the upcoming tournament at odds of 11/4. France are then the second favourite at 7/2, with South Africa and England joint third at 7/1 each. If you are an avid sports bettor looking to place a bet on Rugby make sure to do some research and check your online sources, like this Bovada Sportsbook review, for some insights that will help you choose among many of the betting platforms offered online.

However, it’s still early days. The roster for each team will not have been picked, and there are so many chances for star players to pick up injuries, or new shining stars coming through youth ranks before then. You’ve then got the fact that the coronavirus pandemic is also popping up with new strains, so we could yet see changes to the tournament and teams taking part if the world isn’t completely back to normal by then.

Final Words

Who are your favourites for the tournament? Which teams will fill in the final qualification spaces? Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming 2023 Rugby World Cup in the comments below or on our social channels.

In-line with the United Arab Emirates adopting a 4.5 day work week and weekends now consisting of Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday, World Rugby can today confirm that it has amended the dates of the Rugby World Cup 2021 Final Qualification Tournament to 19th and 25th February, 2022.

Taking place at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, the tournament will shift forward by one day from its original dates that were announced earlier this month.

Teams from Scotland, Samoa, Colombia and the winner of the Hong Kong v Kazakhstan play-off – which has now been confirmed for the 13th February at the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship – will compete for the last remaining place at Rugby World Cup 2021 in New Zealand, taking place between 8 October – 12 November, 2022.

The Final Qualification Tournament will operate in a semi-final, final format over two match days. Teams have been seeded as per World Rugby’s Rankings powered by Capgemini as of 20 December, 2021, with Scotland (seed 1) v Colombia (seed 4) and Samoa (seed 2) v Hong Kong/Kazakhstan (seed 3) meeting in the semi-finals.

Taking into consideration the heat and humidity in Dubai in February the games will be played during late afternoon/evening under the following schedule (all times local time):

19 February, 2022: 16:30 – Semi-Final 1, Scotland v Colombia
19 February, 2022: 19:00 – Semi-Final 2, Samoa v Hong Kong/Kazakhstan
25 February, 2022: 16:30 – 3rd v 4th play-off, runner-up of SF2
25 February, 2022: 19:00 – Final, winner of SF1 v winner of SF2
Rugby World Cup 2021 Tournament Director, Alison Hughes, commented: “As our plans continue to progress in earnest for the Rugby World Cup 2021 Final Qualification Tournament, it is great to be able to confirm the revised dates that are more in-line with our local hosts as well as the fixtures for the two-day event. This is the final piece of the jigsaw for the qualification process for Rugby World Cup 2021; there is a lot on the line for these teams and we know they’ll come out firing to claim the last spot for New Zealand next year.”

This is the first time the women’s edition of Rugby World Cup has featured a Final Qualification Tournament offering teams a second pathway to qualify with the winner booking their place in Pool A alongside hosts New Zealand, Australia and Wales next year.

The All Blacks will play the initial round of Rugby World Cup 2023 against conventional adversaries France, with the match plan for the worldwide competition declared for the time being.

The All Blacks will play France, Italy and two not really set in stone qualifiers (Africa 1 and Americas 1) in Pool Play at the Tournament, with the All Blacks versus France match to be played on Friday 8 September 2023 at Stade de France in Paris.

The All Blacks then, at that point, head toward the south of France to the city of Toulouse to play Africa 1 per week after the fact on Friday 15 September at Stadium de Toulouse. The group’s last two Pool games will be played at Parc OL, Lyon: Italy on Friday 29 September and Americas 1 on Thursday 5 October. Start up occasions for all matches will be reported by the Tournament at the appropriate time.

All Blacks Captain Sam Cane said: “The Rugby World Cup is the apex of a player’s vocation and the 2023 competition looks set to be as important as could be expected. Despite the fact that it’s as yet a couple of years way, and we don’t yet have the foggiest idea who two of the groups in our pool are, it’s invigorating to have the match plan affirmed.”

The All Blacks have played France multiple times at RWCs, the greater part of any nation, and Italy multiple times, with the 2019 match in Japan dropped (as a result of Typhoon Hagibis).

“It will be a huge event playing France in the initial match of the Tournament. Matches between our different sides have been probably the most commended games in our set of experiences, so it’ll be phenomenal to meet them indeed,” Cane added.