2021 WORLD CUP LOWDOWN
RWC 2021 will take place in New Zealand from 18 September to 16 October and feature 12 teams. Here’s the qualification process…
Nine teams are already confirmed. New Zealand, England, France, USA, Canada, Australia and Wales qualified by finishing in the top seven in the final rankings at RWC 2017. They are joined by South Africa, who won the inaugural Rugby Africa Cup last year, and Fiji, winners of the Oceania Rugby Championship.
The winners of the Rugby Europe and Asia Rugby regional competitions will qualify directly.
Rugby Europe’s qualifiers will take place on the weekends of 5, 12 and 19 December, and involve Ireland, Italy, Scotland and the Rugby Europe Championship champions (Netherlands, Russia or Spain). The winners qualify, the runners-up go into the Final Qualification Tournament (FQT).
Dates for the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship, which features Hong Kong, Japan and Kazakhstan, will be confirmed at a later stage, with rugby in the region suspended until 2021. The winners will qualify automatically, the runners-up go into the FQT.
The FQT will provide the last qualifier. This will involve the runners-up of the Asia and Europe tournaments as well as the winners of two play-offs – Samoa v Tonga and Colombia v Kenya. Dates for the play-offs and FQT are to be confirmed.