There were 20 places available for the 2007 Rugby World Cup held in France. The 86 teams taking part in regional qualifying competitions together with the 8 teams which have qualified automatically brings to 94 the total number of teams participating in the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
In qualification for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, thirteen Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) nations compete for one full place, and one repechage place. No Asian teams qualified for the quarter-finals in 2003, so none qualify automatically in 2007. Only Japan has been to the World Cup, participating in all five RWCs to date, with only one win in 1991 (England) against Zimbabwe, 52–8. Asia 1 will go into Group B with Australia, Wales, Fiji and Canada.
Rugby World Cup qualification is a process that determines which nations will compete at the Rugby World Cup, a men's rugby union competition.
The 1999 Rugby World Cup qualifying was held in several continental zones. Four countries qualified automatically—Wales as tournament hosts, South Africa as reigning champions, New Zealand as runners-up in the previous tournament, and France as winners of the third-place playoff in the previous tournament. Repechage was first introduced for the 1999 competition qualifying.
For the 1991 Rugby World Cup, 16 nations participated in the finals tournament, half of which came through qualifying matches, and the other were granted automatic entry as they were quarter-finalists at the 1987 Rugby World Cup. The 25 teams taking part in regional qualifiers together with the 8 teams which qualified automatically brings to 33 the total number of teams participating in the 1991 Rugby World Cup.
Rugby union in Asia is governed by the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU). As of December 2009 there are 28 ARFU member unions, of whom 15 are full members of World Rugby, and six further associate members of World Rugby in Asia. The flagship tournament for promoting the sport in Asia is the Asian Five Nations, which launched in 2008, and which most recently in 2011 saw the national teams of Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and the UAE, compete in the main tournament.
2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying began at the 2007 tournament in France, where twelve teams earned a place in the finals of the tournament, this automatically qualified them for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
The Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU) section of the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification involved five teams competing for one spot in the final tournament in England.
In the Asian Region for 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying, Japan took the sole qualification spot, Asia 1 by winning Round 3: 2014 Asian Five Nations, while second placed Hong Kong qualified for the repechage playoff.
Association football is one of the popular sports in Oceania, and 2 members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) have competed at the sport's biggest event – the men's FIFA World Cup.
Qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup for the Americas began in March 2016, where across 3 years, 20 teams competed for two direct qualification spots into the final tournament, and one spot in the Repechage tournament. For qualification purposes, the two Americas regions Rugby Americas North and Sudamérica Rugby formed the Americas region to compete for the two Americas berths in the World Cup.
The qualification process for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup began on 14 February 2015. Twelve teams qualified for the tournament, which was held in Ireland in 2017.
Qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup for Oceania Rugby began in June 2016, where across 2 years, 3 teams competed for two direct qualification spots from Oceania. Two places were available to Oceania in a cross-regional play-off series' to qualify for the World Cup and or advance through the Repechage.
Qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup for Asia Rugby began in May 2016 and ended in early June 2018, where the winner of the qualification process advanced to a cross-regional play-off series against the winner of Round 2 of the Oceania qualification process in June 2018.
For the 2019 Rugby World Cup, there were several play-off matches during the qualification process in order to determine which nations would compete in the Repechage. Canada, who failed to be one of the three teams to advance from the Americas qualification process, despite being the third highest ranked team in the Americas, emerged from the repechage process in November 2018 to become the final team to qualify for the World Cup.
The Rugby League World Cup qualification is the process a national team goes through to qualify for the Rugby League World Cup Finals.
The 2017 Oceania Rugby Cup for national rugby union teams in the Oceania region was held in Cook Islands at the National Stadium in Rarotonga on 4 August 2017. With Papua New Guinea being forced to withdraw, only two countries remained in the competition played as a straight knock-out match as part of Oceania qualification for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
The qualification process for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France began during the pool stages of the 2019 tournament in Japan, at which the top three teams from each of the four pools qualified automatically for the 2023 event. A further eight teams will qualify through regional, cross-regional play-offs and the repechage process.
The qualification process for the 2021 Rugby World Cup began on 9 August 2019 with 12 teams qualifying to the tournament which will be held in New Zealand. The 2021 Rugby World Cup was postponed by one year in March 2021 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
