World Rugby has announced the qualification process for the expanded Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 to be held in Australia. For the first time, 24 countries will play in the tournament from October 1 to November 13, 2027.

Despite the growth of the game in Africa, the continent’s quota remains lean with only one possible qualifier. Uganda shall host the region’s qualifiers next year with the winner traveling to Australia after meeting the minimum direct qualification from each region criteria.

Besides South Africa (the current champions), Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Algeria, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia and Burkina Faso are some of the African countries expected in Uganda next year to battle for automatic qualification.

The regional quota favors Europe and the Pacific regions which shall provide four and three qualifiers each. Africa, Asia, and South America shall provide one qualifier each with one more qualifier decided in a South America and Pacific play-off between the runners up in the 2025 South America rugby championship and the team that finishes bottom of the Pacific Nations Cup. 

The final slot to be decided during a final qualification tournament in the Repechage format where unlike South America, Europe and the Pacific, Africa will only have one more chance/slot to qualify for Australia 2027.

According to World Rugby, the final tournament will comprise one pool of four teams playing in a round-robin format with the winner proceeding to Australia. The four teams will be from:

• South America’s third-placed team
• South America/Pacific play-off loser
• Fifth-placed team in the Rugby bEurope championship
• Africa/Asia play-off winner (Africa Cup runners up v Asia Rugby championship runner up).

The qualification process is supposed to be completed by 2025 after which the draw shall be conducted in 2026 where the qualifying teams shall be placed in six pools of four teams.

World Rugby explained “the new process opens new avenues for more teams to reach the pinnacle of the sport, raising global standards along the way.” But in the past, only Namibia, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast have previously played at the bigger stage.

Already, 12 teams namely Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, France, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Wales have qualified as a result of finishing top three in their pool at the last championship in France last year. 

From the round robin matches, 16 teams shall qualify to the next round before the quarter finals. As a result, the organizers believe this will hive off one week from the competition schedule.