Rugby World Cup 2023 TV coverage UK

2023 Rugby World Cup

Coupe du monde de rugby 2023Tournament detailsHost nationDatesNo. of nations

We Are Rugby #WeAre2023![1]

France

8 September – 28 October 2023

20

← 2019 2027 →

The 2023 Rugby World Cup is scheduled to be the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union 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, 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.[2] 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, as well as the 1991 Rugby World Cup as joint hosts with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It precedes 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, who defeated England 32–12 in the 2019 final.

Chile will make its first ever appearance at the Rugby World Cup, and Portugal will return for its second appearance, after 16 years.

Host country selection[edit]

World Rugby 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 were among the members interested, but withdrew from their bid on 28 September 2016. The Argentine Rugby Union and USA Rugby both expressed their interest in hosting the event but ultimately decided against a formal bid.[citation needed] Three bids were officially submitted to World Rugby by the June 2017 deadline.

On 15 November 2017, the French Rugby Federation bid was chosen 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]

Venues[edit]

On 17 March 2017, twelve host cities were selected.[4] This list was later reduced to nine cities (excluding Paris, Montpellier and Lens):

Saint-Denis
(Paris)MarseilleDécines-Charpieu
(Lyon)Villeneuve-d'Ascq
(Lille)Bordeaux

Saint-Denis

Marseille

Décines-Charpieu

Villeneuve-d'Ascq

Nantes

Bordeaux

Saint-Étienne

Nice

Toulouse

Saint-ÉtienneNiceNantesToulouse

Stade de Franceab	Stade Vélodromea	Parc Olympique Lyonnais	Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Capacity: 80,698	Capacity: 67,394	Capacity: 59,186	Capacity: 50,186
Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux
Capacity: 42,115
Stade Geoffroy-Guicharda	Allianz Riviera	Stade de la Beaujoirea	Stadium Municipalab
Capacity: 41,965	Capacity: 35,624	Capacity: 35,322	Capacity: 33,150

a Stadium/site used in 2007 Rugby World Cup. b Stadium/site used in 1999 Rugby World Cup.

Team base camps[edit]

National squads' base camps

Team City  Argentina La Baule-Escoublac  Australia Saint-Étienne  Chile Perros-Guirec  England Le Touquet  Fiji Lormont  France Rueil-Malmaison  Georgia Île de Ré  Ireland Tours  Italy Bourgoin-Jallieu  Japan Toulouse	Team City  Namibia Aix-les-Bains  New Zealand Lyon  Portugal TBA  Romania Libourne  Samoa Montpellier  Scotland Nice  South Africa Toulon  Tonga Croissy-sur-Seine  Uruguay Avignon  Wales Versailles

Qualifying[edit]

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, 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. The final spot will be decided by a repechage tournament in November 2022. Spain originally qualified as Europe 2, but Romania complained that they had fielded an ineligible player during the qualifying tournament. After a controversial investigation, it was concluded that the player had falsified his passport and Spain suffered a deduction of 10 points, resulting in Romania replacing them as Europe 2 and Portugal taking Romania's spot in the repechage tournament.[5] On November 18th of 2022, Portugal won the repechage tournament to be the last country to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The below table shows the qualified teams as of 18 November 2022:

Qualified teams Region Team Qualification
method Previous
appsPrevious best result World Rugby
Ranking¹

Africa	South Africa	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	7	Champions (1995, 2007, 2019)	4
Namibia	Africa 1	6	Pool stage (1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019)	23
Asia	Japan	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Quarter-finals (2019)	10
Europe	France	Hosts	9	Runners-up (1987, 1999, 2011)	2
England	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Champions (2003)	5
Ireland	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Quarter-finals ()	1
Italy	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Pool stage ()	11
Scotland	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Fourth place (1991)	9
Wales	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Third place (1987)	7
Georgia	Europe 1	5	Pool stage (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019)	14
Romania	Europe 2	8	Pool stage ()	20
Portugal	Final Qualifier	1	Pool stage (2007)	19
Oceania	Australia	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Champions (1991, 1999)	8
Fiji	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	8	Quarter-finals (1987, 2007)	13
New Zealand	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Champions (1987, 2011, 2015)	3
Samoa	Oceania 1	8	Quarter-finals (1991, 1995)	12
Tonga	Asia/Pacific 1	8	Pool stage ()	15
America	Argentina	Top 3 in 2019 RWC pool	9	Third place (2007)	6
Uruguay	Americas 1	4	Pool stage (1999, 2003, 2015, 2019)	16
Chile	Americas 2	0	Debut	22

¹as of 14 November 2022

Draw[edit]

The pool draw took place on 14 December 2020 in Paris.[6] 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 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):

Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5

South Africa (1)  New Zealand (2)  England (3)  Wales (4)	Ireland (5)  Australia (6)  France (7)  Japan (8)	Scotland (9)  Argentina (10)  Fiji (11)  Italy (12)	Samoa (Oceania 1)  Georgia (Europe 1)  Uruguay (Americas 1)  Tonga (Asia/Pacific 1)	Namibia (Africa 1)  Romania (Europe 2)  Chile (Americas 2)  Portugal (Final Qualifier Winner)

Pool stage[edit]

Key to colours in pool tables

• v
• t
• e

	Advanced to the quarter-finals and qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup
	Eliminated but qualified for 2027 Rugby World Cup

Pool A[edit]

Team

• v
• t
• e

Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts

New Zealand	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Italy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Uruguay	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Namibia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

8 September 2023	France	v	New Zealand	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
9 September 2023	Italy	v	Namibia	Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Etienne
14 September 2023	France	v	Uruguay	Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
15 September 2023	New Zealand	v	Namibia	Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse
20 September 2023	Italy	v	Uruguay	Allianz Riviera, Nice
21 September 2023	France	v	Namibia	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
27 September 2023	Uruguay	v	Namibia	Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu
29 September 2023	New Zealand	v	Italy	Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu
5 October 2023	New Zealand	v	Uruguay	Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu
6 October 2023	France	v	Italy	Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu

Pool B[edit]

Team

• v
• t
• e

Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts

South Africa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ireland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tonga	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Romania	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

9 September 2023	Ireland	v	Romania	Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
10 September 2023	South Africa	v	Scotland	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
16 September 2023	Ireland	v	Tonga	Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes
17 September 2023	South Africa	v	Romania	Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
23 September 2023	South Africa	v	Ireland	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
24 September 2023	Scotland	v	Tonga	Allianz Riviera, Nice
30 September 2023	Scotland	v	Romania	Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
1 October 2023	South Africa	v	Tonga	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
7 October 2023	Ireland	v	Scotland	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
8 October 2023	Tonga	v	Romania	Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille

Pool C[edit]

Team

• v
• t
• e

Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts

Wales	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fiji	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Georgia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Portugal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

9 September 2023	Australia	v	Georgia	Stade de France, Saint-Denis
10 September 2023	Wales	v	Fiji	Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
16 September 2023	Wales	v	Portugal	Allianz Riviera, Nice
17 September 2023	Australia	v	Fiji	Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Etienne
23 September 2023	Georgia	v	Portugal	Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse
24 September 2023	Wales	v	Australia	Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu
30 September 2023	Fiji	v	Georgia	Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
1 October 2023	Australia	v	Portugal	Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Etienne
7 October 2023	Wales	v	Georgia	Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes
8 October 2023	Fiji	v	Portugal	Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse

Pool D[edit]

Team

• v
• t
• e

Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts

England	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Argentina	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Samoa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chile	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

9 September 2023	England	v	Argentina	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
10 September 2023	Japan	v	Chile	Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse
16 September 2023	Samoa	v	Chile	Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
17 September 2023	England	v	Japan	Allianz Riviera, Nice
22 September 2023	Argentina	v	Samoa	Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Etienne
23 September 2023	England	v	Chile	Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
28 September 2023	Japan	v	Samoa	Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse
30 September 2023	Argentina	v	Chile	Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes
7 October 2023	England	v	Samoa	Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
8 October 2023	Japan	v	Argentina	Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes

Knockout stage[edit]

The knockout stage of the Rugby World Cup will consist of three single-elimination 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		Semi-finals		Final
	14 October – Marseille
	Winner of Pool C
	20 October – Saint-Denis
	Runner-up of Pool D
	Winner of QF1
	14 October – Saint-Denis
		Winner of QF2
	Winner of Pool B
		28 October – Saint-Denis
	Runner-up of Pool A
	Winner of SF1
	15 October – Marseille
		Winner of SF2
	Winner of Pool D
	21 October – Saint-Denis
	Runner-up of Pool C
	Winner of QF3
	15 October – Saint-Denis
		Winner of QF4			Bronze final
	Winner of Pool A
		27 October – Saint-Denis
	Runner-up of Pool B
	Loser of SF1
	Loser of SF2

Quarter-finals[edit]

Winner of Pool CQF1 Runner-up of Pool D

Winner of Pool BQF2 Runner-up of Pool A

Winner of Pool DQF3 Runner-up of Pool C

Winner of Pool AQF4 Runner-up of Pool B

Semi-finals[edit]

Winner of QF1SF1 Winner of QF2

Winner of QF3SF2 Winner of QF4

Bronze final[edit]

Loser of SF1v Loser of SF2

Final[edit]

Winner of SF1v Winner of SF2

Broadcasting[edit]

See also[edit]

• History of the Rugby World Cup
• 2019 Rugby World Cup

References[edit]

1. ^ "The 2023 Rugby World Cup Slogan is Unveiled". us.media.france.fr. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
2. ^ "Webb Ellis, William", Retrieved 28 September 2015.
3. ^ "Rugby: France launch 2023 World Cup bid", Reuters, 9 February 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017
4. ^ "#France2023 : Douze villes hôtes retenues" (in French). sport24.com. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
5. ^ "INDEPENDENT JUDICIAL COMMITTEE DECISION: RUGBY WORLD CUP 2023 EUROPEAN QUALIFYING". rugbyworldcup.com. Rugby World Cup. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
6. ^ "Stage set for Rugby World Cup 2023 Draw - Rugby World Cup 2023". rugbyworldcup.com. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
7. ^ "Rugby World Cup 2019 and TF1 continue record broadcast partnership".
8. ^ "Ziggo Sport acquires rights to Rugby World Cup". BroadbandTV News. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
9. ^ "ITV appointed UK rights holder for men's and women's Rugby World Cup events". rugbybworldcup.com. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
10. ^ "NBC Sports Group acquires exclusive U.S. media rights to Rugby World Cup". 22 May 2017.
11. ^ "Stan Sport and Nine win broadcast rights for men's and women's Rugby World Cups". 23 August 2022.
12. ^ "Rugby World Cup 2023: la Rai e Sky trasmetteranno tutte le partite del Mondiale". 22 September 2022.
13. ^ Keall, Chris. "Sky TV wins Rugby World Cup rights through to 2029, offloads Rugbypass". ZB. Retrieved 14 November 2022.

External links[edit]

• Official website

What channel is the 2023 Rugby World Cup?

What TV channel is Rugby World Cup on in UK?

Which channel is showing Rugby World Cup?

Where can I watch RWC 2023?