User:Norcandy/RWC
Current season or competition: 2025 Rugby World Cup | |
.png){kind=logo} Logo of the IRFB, branded as Kylaris Rugby | |
| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Instituted | 1981; 43 years ago |
| Inaugural season | 1981 Rugby World Cup |
| Number of teams | 20 (finals) |
| Holders |  Garambura (2021) |
| Most titles |  Caldia (4 titles) |
| Website | rugbyworldcup |
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament held every four years, and contested by the top twenty international qualifying teams. Since its inception in 1981, the tournament has been governed by the International Rugby Football Board, the sport's international governing body. Four different teams have won the Rugby World Cup: Caldia have won four times and hold the most titles (1989, 2005, 2009 and 2017) and are the only team to have won in back-to-back tournaments, Nuvania have won three times (1981, 1993 and 2013), whilst Garambura and Satavia have both won twice (Garambura won in 2001 and 2021 whilst Satavia won in 1985 and 1997). The most recent World Cup, hosted by Satavia in 2021, was won by Garambura.
Since the tournaments inception, twenty teams have participated, but with increasing demand and the emergence of several new competitive teams, proposals are under discussion to increase the number of teams to twenty four.
Format
Qualification
Under the current format, 20 teams qualify for the Rugby World Cup. 12 (or in some cases 13) nations qualify automatically: the top three finishers in each pool from the previous World Cup and the host nation. The remaining seven slots are filled based on international qualifying competitions, and three places are avaliable for nations from Euclea, whilst two are available from the Asterias and Coius respectively. If the host nation finished within the top three of their group at the previous World Cup (and therefore only 12 nations qualified automatically) the remaining place is decided based off an intercontinental playoff tournament between nations who failed to qualify in their reespective regional groups and is rewarded as the repechage place.