Qualification Twenty teams competed. 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 were decided by regional competitions followed by a few cross-regional play-offs. Two berths were reserved to the European region.
Spain originally qualified as Europe 2, but
Romania lodged an official complaint that Spain had fielded an ineligible player during the qualifying tournament. After a controversial investigation, it was concluded that the player in question had falsified his passport: Spain received a deduction of 10 points, resulting in them being effectively ejected from the competition, with Romania replacing them as Europe 2 behind
Georgia, unaffected as Europe 1.
Portugal then took Romania's spot in the repechage tournament as Europe 3. In Oceania and Asia, traditional middle powers emerged, with
Samoa claiming the region's place at the World Cup (Fiji, New Zealand and Australia having automatically qualified).
Tonga, the second Oceanian team, then won a playoff against
Hong Kong, the highest ranked Asian representative, to claim their ninth appearance at a Rugby World Cup. Hong Kong proceeded to the final repechage tournament. In Africa,
Namibia reached their seventh Rugby World Cup as Africa 1, with
Kenya moving forward to the final repechage. The Americas were allocated two qualifying berths through a series of playoff matches spanning both regions. The 2023 Rugby World Cup witnessed historic developments in North and South American rugby.
Canada's absence marked the first time in history that the country failed to qualify for the tournament. Similarly, the
United States found themselves excluded from the competition for the first time since 1995, representing a notable departure from previous editions. The absence of North American representation significantly shifted the regional dynamic due to unified North and South American qualification matches. On 18 November 2022, Portugal won the repechage tournament, overcoming Kenya, Hong Kong and the United States to be the last country to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. ¹as of 4 September 2023 post warm-up matches
Squads Each team could submit a squad of 33 players for the tournament, an increase from 31 that was allowed in 2019. The squads were to be submitted to World Rugby by 1 September. If a team needed to call-up a new player, a player must first have been withdrawn from the active 33-player squad which is usually as a consequence of a long-term injury. On 1 May,
Wales were the first team to name their extended training squad for the tournament.
Draw The pool draw took place on 14 December 2020 in Paris. 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): Having the draw so early (almost three years before the competition) was criticised. Changes in the
World Rugby Rankings had taken place since, meaning that
Pool B contained three of the top five teams (Ireland (1), South Africa (2) and Scotland (5)), while
Pool A contained France (3) and New Zealand (4). Meanwhile,
Pool C's highest-ranked team at the start of the tournament was Fiji (7). World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin pledged that draws for future World Cups would be better balanced. ==Preparation==