 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host nation |  United States |
| Dates | – |
| No. of nations | 24 |
← 2027 | |
The 2031 Rugby World Cup will be the 12th edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It is scheduled to take place in the United States, tentatively from September to October 2031. This will be the first time the tournament is held in the Americas.
USA Rugby officially launched their bid to host the 2027 or 2031 editions of the Rugby World Cup in October 2021, [1] [2] while in February the same year, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland had considered a joint bid to host the 2031 edition. [3] At the time, the United States was the only bidder for the 2031 Rugby World Cup and the following month (November 2021) were in an “exclusive targeted dialogue” with World Rugby with regard to hosting the 2031 edition. [4]
In April 2022, President Joe Biden sent a letter of support to World Rugby affirming his support for the bid. [5] On May 12, 2022, World Rugby announced the United States had won the bid to host the 2031 Rugby World Cup. [6] [7]
| Nation | Votes |
|---|---|
 United States | Acclamation |
The Rugby World Cup will expand from 20 to 24 teams at the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia. The 2031 Rugby World Cup will be the second edition of the tournament to include 24 teams. There will be six pools consisting of four teams. A round of 16 will be introduced prior to the quarter-finals. A total of 52 matches will be played over the course of six weeks. [8] [9] [10]
The Rugby World Cup typically takes place from September to October. In the United States, this would overlap with the 2031 NFL season and the 2031 Major League Soccer season. As many of the proposed venues are NFL stadiums, MLB stadiums and MLS stadiums, there is the possibility of the tournament being held during the summer months (June–September) to minimize clashes with other leagues' schedules, mainly that of the NFL. [11] However, a determination of scheduling is yet to be made. [12] [13] [a]
A total of 25 cities have been shortlisted for the 2031 Rugby World Cup. Shortlisted cities include Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Most of the proposed venues are NFL stadiums, with a number of MLB and MLS stadiums in the running as well. [14] [15] [16] Among the 24 cities which are under consideration, 11 of them have been selected as host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The below table shows the qualified teams as of April 28, 2022:
| Region | Team | Qualification method | Previous Apps | Previous best result | World Ranking 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | United States | Hosts | TBD | TBD |
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003, beating a bid from England. The competition consisted of 48 matches over 44 days; 42 matches were played in 10 cities throughout France, as well as four in Cardiff, Wales, and two in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Rugby union in the United States is played at youth, high school, college, amateur, professional, and international levels and governed by USA Rugby. There were over 125,000 players registered with USA Rugby as of 2016. Over 2,500 rugby union clubs exist around the country, including those who are part of college rugby. Professional club competition has existed as Major League Rugby (MLR) since 2017.
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