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Participating Countries

At each Rugby World Cup tournament, there have been at least 16 nations taking part. In total over the years 25 nations have participated at the World Cup at least once. Below is listed all the countries that have at some time participated at the Rugby World Cup.



rugby goal postsThe nations that have never missed a tournament, playing in all eight so far are: Argentina, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.

2023 Participants

Here are the 20 nations that participated at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Chile was the only debuting nation.

Previous Participants



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Rugby World Cup Extra

The next men's Rugby World Cup will be played in France in 2023. See the list of winners, and more firsts and other trivia, and also information about each country at the World Cup. There is also a Women's World Cup.

Major Events Extra

The largest sporting event in the world is the Olympic Games, but there are many other multi-sport games. In terms of single sport events, nothing beats the FIFA World Cup. To see what's coming up, check out the calendar of major sporting events.

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