The qualifying process for the 2027 Men's Rugby World Cup for African teams began in July 2024, with 16 teams competing for one qualification spot (Africa 1) into the final tournament and one spot in a play-off match (Africa 2).[1]
The African qualifying process concluded in July 2025, with Zimbabwe qualifying for the World Cup as Africa 1, which saw the Sables return to the World Cup for the first time since 1991.
Format
The Rugby Africa Cup, governed by Rugby Africa, was the regional qualification tournament for Rugby World Cup 2027, with the top two divisions in the region acting as the process.
Qualification took place over three rounds;
Round 1 was the 2024 Rugby Africa Cup, where the top eight African nations (excluding South Africa) played in a straight knock-out format to determine seedings (1–7) for the third round of the qualification process. The bottom placed side at the end of the first round, was eliminated from qualification.
Round 2 was a repechage round between the eight development African nations, which saw the winner progress to the third round of the regional qualification as eighth seed replacing the eliminated team from round 1.
Round 3 was the 2025 Rugby Africa Cup, where the eight competing teams faced each other in a straight knock-out format based on their seedings in 2024; 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5. The winner of this round qualified for the Rugby World Cup as Africa 1, whilst the runner-up advanced to a play-off match against Asia 2 to decide who progresses to the Final Qualification Tournament.
Entrants
Eight teams competed during for the Africa qualifiers for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, with South Africa the only team qualified from the Region prior to the qualification process.
(Rankings as of first qualification match in this region)
The third round saw a straight knockout format based on final positions in the first round, with the winner qualifying for the World Cup as Africa 1, whilst the runner-up (Africa 2) progressed to an Asia / Africa play-off match against Asia 2 (United Arab Emirates) to decide who plays in the Final Qualification Tournament.[3]
Like the first round, Kampala, Uganda hosted the tournament between 8 and 19 July 2025.[4]
Zimbabwe won the 2025 Rugby Africa Cup to qualify for the World Cup, whilst runners-up Namibia advanced to the cross-regional play-offs. Algeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal and Uganda were eliminated.
Notes: There was no qualification for the 1987 World Cup as places were given by invitation only.
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Algeria 
Botswana 
Burkina Faso 
Cameroon 
Ghana 
Ivory Coast 
Kenya 
Morocco 
Madagascar 
Namibia 
Nigeria 
Senegal 
South Africa 
Tunisia 
Uganda 
Zambia 
Zimbabwe 
