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A 24 Team Rugby World Cup is ‘Far Away’. Unión de Rugby del Uruguay (URU) President Sebastián Piñeyrua noted to Ignacio Chans of Referi that the chances of expanding from 20 to 24 teams is unlikely.
“I don’t believe that it would be so simple, the World Cup is already very long and has many matches. For Uruguay it would be great but I have not heard of anything”. said Piñeyrua.
The Rugby World Cup has been a 20 team tournament since 1999. Prior to that the tournament had 16 teams. Namibia, Spain and Uruguay all debuted in 1999. In 1995 neither Fiji nor the USA competed. Since 1999 Georgia, Portugal and Russia have played for the first time at World Cups.
The news comes contrary to World Rugby’s stance of expanding the sport, making it as global as possible. It also occurs months out from the decision as to where Rugby World Cup 2023 will be played. It will see the tournament returning to familiar ground. Bidders France, Ireland and South Africa have all hosted in some capacity in the past.
In the Americas efforts to expand are to nonetheless march on. The creation of the Americas Rugby Championship has made the region more cohesive than ever before. Rugby Americas North and Sudamérica Rugby continue to work together with inter-regional involvement.
A second division of the Americas Rugby Championship remains entirely plausible. This would combine large, populated countries with smaller island nations in the Caribbean. At present the countries ranked 7th – 12th in the Americas are Paraguay, Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and the Cayman Islands.
