WORLD RUGBY SAID today that all its six regions will have at least one slot in the 2027 World Cup, when the field grows by four teams to 24.
Twelve teams have already qualified for Australia after finishing in the top three in their groups in the 2023 World Cup in France.
They are the members of the Six Nations, the four teams in the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship plus Japan and Fiji.
The other places will be determined in 2025.
Four spots will go to the top teams in the second-tier European Championship.
Another three will go to the top unqualified teams in the Pacific Nations Cup, which is made up of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Japan, Canada and the United States.
But the format means the one team that misses out could have two more chances to qualify.
The winners of the Asian and South American Championship and the African Cup will qualify.
One place will be at stake in a playoff between the second team in the South American championship and the lowest-placed unqualified team in the Pacific competition.
The last slot will be decided in a four-team tournament. It will include the loser of the playoff, another South American team, another European team and the winner of a playoff between the African and Asian runners-up.
World Rugby called the format “a re-imagination of the qualification process”. It said that for the first time, all the participants would be known at the time of the draw, scheduled for early 2026.
The enlarged World Cup will feature six pools of four and add a round of 16 before the quarter-finals.
