This article presents the national team appearances in the Rugby World Cup. The article tracks the appearances, results, and debuts for all national teams that have participated in at least one Rugby World Cup.

Number of appearances

Tournament appearances by team, up to and including 2023:

Team	Apps	Record streak	Active streak	Debut	Most recent	Best result
South Africa	8	8	8	1995	2023	Champions (1995, 2007, 2019, 2023)
New Zealand	10	10	10	1987	2023	Champions (1987, 2011, 2015)
Australia	10	10	10	1987	2023	Champions (1991, 1999)
England	10	10	10	1987	2023	Champions (2003)
France	10	10	10	1987	2023	Runners-up (1987, 1999, 2011)
Wales	10	10	10	1987	2023	Third place (1987)
Argentina	10	10	10	1987	2023	Third place (2007)
Scotland	10	10	10	1987	2023	Fourth place (1991)
Ireland	10	10	10	1987	2023	Quarter-finals (eight times)
Fiji	9	7	7	1987	2023	Quarter-finals (1987, 2007, 2023)
Samoa	9	9	9	1991	2023	Quarter-finals (1991, 1995)
Canada	9	9	0	1987	2019	Quarter-finals (1991)
Japan	10	10	10	1987	2023	Quarter-finals (2019)
Italy	10	10	10	1987	2023	2 wins (six times)
Tonga	9	8	8	1987	2023	2 wins (2007, 2011)
Georgia	6	6	6	2003	2023	2 wins (2015)
Portugal	2	1	1	2007	2023	1 win and 1 draw (2023)
Romania	9	8	1	1987	2023	1 win (six times)
United States	8	6	0	1987	2019	1 win (1987, 2003, 2011)
Uruguay	5	3	3	1999	2023	1 win (1999, 2003, 2019, 2023)
Namibia	7	7	7	1999	2023	1 draw (2019)
Zimbabwe	2	2	0	1987	1991	0 wins
Ivory Coast	1	1	0	1995	1995	0 wins
Spain	1	1	0	1999	1999	0 wins
Russia	2	1	0	2011	2019	0 wins
Chile	1	1	1	2023	2023	0 wins

Results by tournament

Legend

• QF — Quarterfinalist
• R2 — Round 2 (1999: quarterfinal playoffs)
• R1 — Round 1 (pool stage)
• Q — Qualified
• •• — Invited but declined or qualified but withdrew
• • — Did not qualify
• × — Expelled after qualification/Disqualified
•   — Not invited (1987) / Did not enter or withdrew from qualifying
•   — Hosts

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

Team	1987 (16)	1991 (16)	1995 (16)	1999 (20)	2003 (20)	2007 (20)	2011 (20)	2015 (20)	2019 (20)	2023 (20)
Africa
Ivory Coast		•	R1	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Namibia			•	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1
South Africa(3)			1st	3rd	QF	1st	QF	3rd	1st	1st
Zimbabwe	R1	R1	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Asia
Japan	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	QF	R1
Europe
England	QF	2nd	4th	QF	1st	2nd	QF	R1	2nd	3rd
France	2nd	QF	3rd	2nd	4th	4th	2nd	QF	QF	QF
Georgia	••(1)		•	•	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1
Ireland	QF	QF	QF	R2	QF	R1	QF	QF	QF	QF
Italy	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1
Portugal		•	•	•	•	R1	•	•	•	R1
Romania	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	•(4)	R1
Russia	••(1)		•	•	•	•	R1	•	R1	•
Scotland	QF	4th	QF	QF	QF	QF	R1	QF	R1	R1
Spain		•	•	R1	•	•	•	•	•(4)	×(5)
Wales	3rd	R1	R1	QF	QF	R1	4th	QF	4th	QF
North America
Canada	R1	QF	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	•
United States	R1	R1	•	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	•
Oceania
Australia	4th	1st	QF	1st	2nd	QF	3rd	2nd	QF	R1
Fiji	QF	R1	•	R2	R1	QF	R1	R1	R1	QF
New Zealand	1st	3rd	2nd	4th	3rd	QF	1st	1st	3rd	2nd
Samoa(2)		QF	QF	R2	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1
Tonga	R1	•	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1
South America
Argentina	R1	R1	R1	QF	R1	3rd	QF	4th	R1	4th
Chile			•	•	•	•	•	•	•	R1
Uruguay			•	R1	R1	•	•	R1	R1	R1
Team	1987 (16)	1991 (16)	1995 (16)	1999 (20)	2003 (20)	2007 (20)	2011 (20)	2015 (20)	2019 (20)	2023 (20)

• ¹ Georgia and Russia were part of the Soviet Union in 1987, whose national team declined an invitation to the inaugural World Cup on political grounds.
• ² Samoa was known as Western Samoa until 1997.
• ³ South Africa did not compete in 1987 and 1991 while subject to an international sporting boycott in opposition to the country's apartheid regime.
• ⁴ Romania and Spain fielded ineligible players during the Rugby Europe Championship, incurring points deductions resulting in their non-qualification in 2019.^[1]
• ⁵ Spain had initially qualified, but were deducted 10 points for fielding an ineligible player in two qualifying games, resulting in Spain losing their place.^[2]

Debut of national teams

26 nations have thus far qualified for the Rugby World Cup. From 1987 until 2011, each edition featured at least one new debuting country. The 2015 tournament was the first edition with no country making its debut. It simply featured the return of Uruguay after not qualifying for the 2007 and 2011 editions. The 2019 was the same, with Romania disqualified and replaced by Russia.

Year	Nation(s)	Total
1987	Argentina  Australia  Canada  England  Fiji  France  Ireland  Italy  Japan  New Zealand  Romania  Scotland  Tonga  United States  Wales  Zimbabwe	16
1991	Samoa	1
1995	Ivory Coast  South Africa	2
1999	Namibia  Spain  Uruguay	3
2003	Georgia	1
2007	Portugal	1
2011	Russia	1
2015	(none)	0
2019	(none)	0
2023	Chile	1

Result of host nations

The best result by hosts is champions, achieved by New Zealand in 1987 and 2011, and by South Africa in 1995. The worst result was by Wales in 1991 with only one win in pool play, although they did not host the final. The worst result by a country who hosted the final is held by England, being eliminated in the group stage in 2015.

Year	Host nation	Finish
1987	New Zealand	Champions
	Australia	Fourth place
1991	England	Runners-up
	Scotland	Fourth place
	France	Quarter-finals
	Ireland	Quarter-finals
	Wales	Group stage
1995	South Africa	Champions
1999	Wales	Quarter-finals
2003	Australia	Runners-up
2007	France	Fourth place
2011	New Zealand	Champions
2015	England	Group stage
2019	Japan	Quarter-finals
2023	France	Quarter-finals

Results of defending champions

New Zealand and South Africa are the only nations to successfully defend the World Cup as defending champions in 2015 and 2023 respectively. Australia and England achieved runner up in 2003 and 2007, respectively. The worst results were by Australia in 1995 and South Africa in 2011, both exiting in the quarter-finals.

Year	Defending champions	Finish
1991	New Zealand	Third place
1995	Australia	Quarter-finals
1999	South Africa	Third place
2003	Australia	Runners-up
2007	England	Runners-up
2011	South Africa	Quarter-finals
2015	New Zealand	Champions
2019	New Zealand	Third place
2023	South Africa	Champions

Performance by confederation

This is a summary of the best performances of each confederation in each tournament.

Number of teams by confederation

This is a summary of the total number of participating teams by confederation in each tournament.

Appearance droughts

This section is a list of droughts associated with the participation of national rugby union teams in the Rugby World Cups.

Longest active droughts

Does not include teams that have not yet made their first appearance or teams that no longer exist.

Team	Last appearance	WC Missed
Zimbabwe	1991	8
Ivory Coast	1995	7
Spain	1999	6
Canada	2019	1
Russia	2019	1
United States	2019	1

Longest droughts overall

Only includes droughts begun after a team's first appearance and until the team ceased to exist updated to include qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Team	Prev. appearance	Next appearance	WC Missed
Zimbabwe	1991	active	8
Ivory Coast	1995	active	7
Spain	1999	active	6
Portugal	2007	2023	3
Uruguay	2003	2015	2