2023 Rugby World Cup
| Coupe du monde de rugby à XV 2023 | |
|---|---|
| File:2023 Rugby World Cup.jpg | |
| Tournament details | |
| Host nation |  France |
| Dates | 8 September – 21 October ¢ |
The 2023 Rugby World Cup, to be hosted by France, is scheduled to be the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, taking place in the year of the 200th anniversary of the 'invention' of the sport by William Webb Ellis from 8 September to 21 October.[1] The final will take place at the Stade de France. It will be the second time France has hosted the Rugby World Cup, having previously hosted the 2007 event. It is a warm-up for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and will take place less than a year before the Olympic opening ceremony.
The defending champions are South Africa.
Qualifying
20 teams are set to compete. A total of 12 teams gained automatic qualification to the tournament after finishing in the top three of their pool at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, while France automatically qualify as host. The remaining eight spaces will be decided by regional competitions followed by a few cross regional play-offs. The final spot will be decided by a repechage tournament in November 2022.
The below table shows the qualified teams as of 2 November 2019:
| Qualified Teams | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Team | Qualification method |
Previous apps |
Previous best result | World Ranking |
| Africa |  South Africa
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 7 | Champions (1995, 2007, 2019) | |
| Asia |  Japan
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Quarter-finals (2019) | |
| Europe |  England
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Champions (2003) | |
| France
|
Hosts | 9 | Runners-up (1987, 1999, 2011) | ||
 Ireland
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Quarter-finals (seven times) | ||
 Italy
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Pool stage | ||
 Scotland
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Fourth place (1991) | ||
 Wales
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Third place (1987) | ||
| Oceania |  Australia
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Champions (1991, 1999) | |
 Fiji
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 8 | Quarter-finals (1987, 2007) | ||
 New Zealand
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Champions (1987, 2011, 2015) | ||
| South America |  Argentina
|
Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool | 9 | Third place (2007) | |
Draw
The pool draw is due to take place on 30 November 2020, in Paris.[2] The draw returned to its traditional place of the year following the previous World Cup, after the November internationals.
The seeding system from previous Rugby World Cups will be retained with the 12 automatic qualifiers from 2019 being allocated to their respective bands based on their World Rugby Rankings on the day of the draw:
- 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, Americas 1, Europe 1, Africa 1
- Band 5: – Oceania 2, Americas 2, Play-off Winner, Repechage Winner
Hosting and venues
The French Rugby Federation bid was chosen by World Rugby on 15 November 2017, ahead of bids by the South African Rugby Union and the Irish Rugby Football Union. France had launched its bid on 9 February 2017.[3] On 17 March, 12 host cities were selected.[4] This list was later reduced to 9 cities (excluding Paris, Montpellier and Lens):
| Saint-Denis (Paris) |
Marseille | Décines-Charpieu (Lyon) |
Villeneuve-d'Ascq (Lille) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stade de Franceab | Stade Vélodromea | Parc Olympique Lyonnais | Stade Pierre-Mauroy |
| Capacity: 80,698 | Capacity: 67,394 | Capacity: 59,186 | Capacity: 50,157 |
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| Bordeaux | |||
| Matmut Atlantique | |||
| Capacity: 42,115 | |||
| |||
| Saint-Étienne | Nice | Nantes | Toulouse |
| Stade Geoffroy-Guicharda | Allianz Riviera | Stade de la Beaujoirea | Stadium Municipalab |
| Capacity: 41,965 | Capacity: 35,624 | Capacity: 35,322 | Capacity: 33,150 |
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a Stadium/site used in 2007 Rugby World Cup. b Stadium/site used in 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Broadcasting
See also
References
- ^ "Webb Ellis, William", Retrieved 28 September 2015.
- ^ "World Ranking race begins for RWC 2023 pool draw". Rugby World Cup. World Rugby. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- ^ "Rugby: France launch 2023 World Cup bid", Reuters, 9 February 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017
- ^ "#France2023 : Douze villes hôtes retenues" (in French). sport24.com. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
- ^ "Rugby World Cup 2019 and TF1 continue record broadcast partnership".
- ^ rugbybworldcup.com. "ITV appointed UK rights holder for men's and women's Rugby World Cup events". Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- ^ "NBC SPORTS GROUP ACQUIRES EXCLUSIVE U.S. MEDIA RIGHTS TO RUGBY WORLD CUP". 22 May 2017.