How teams from Africa will qualify for Rugby World Cup 2023
The 2021–22 Rugby Africa Cup, which doubles as Qualifying for the 2023 Rugby World Cup for Africa began in June 2021, where teams will compete for one direct qualification spot into the final World Cup tournament and for one place in the Final Qualification Tournament.
Qualifying begins with a round robin tournament between Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Burundi. The winner of this tournament advances to the group stage of the tournament.
The top two teams from each of the four groups then advance to the final round in 2022. The top team from the final round qualifies as Africa 1. The second place team advances to the Final Qualification Tournament.[2]
Fourteen participants will enter the Africa qualifiers in a bid to join South Africa (already qualified due to top 3 finish in the pool stages in 2019) at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Three teams begin play in Round 1, with eleven more in Round 2. The same seeding from the cancelled 2019–20 Rugby Africa Cup is used for the group stage. Team World rankings taken prior to first Africa qualifying match.
