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The RWC 2023 organizing committee are eyeing the rankings that followed RWC 2019 for the purposes of determining the seeding format. The COVID-19 pandemic has suspended international competition and it remains to be seen if there will be further activities in 2020.
International competition began in Europe in February before being suspended early. This saw the cancelation of the Americas Rugby Championship and the July Internationals. The November Internationals remain confirmed, though they are also very clouded.
If there is to be further international competition in 2020 it looms as being for selected teams rather than for everybody. As such there are teams who face the prospect of not being able to improve upon their rankings following RWC 2019. For the purposes of the RWC 2023 draw the committee is eyeing the possibility of freezing the rankings from the competition of RWC 2019 for the 2023 seedings.
In the event that the rankings were to be frozen there would be winners and losers. Japan, for instance finished RWC 2019 ranked 8th in the world. Results since then place the Asian no1 lower. The change corresponds to a fall from the second to the third category of rankings.
Japan and eleven other teams from RWC 2019 qualified automatically for RWC 2023. They are Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland and Wales. Based on how RWC 2023 concluded their rankings place them as follows:
Category 1: South Africa, New Zealand, England, Wales
Category 2: Ireland, Australia, France, Japan
Category 3: Scotland, Argentina, Fiji, Italy
If international competition does not resume then it can be concluded that the above categories will stand. Under this scenario Argentina are in the worst category and thereby face a probable pool of death in RWC 2023. The best case possibility may be competing in a pool against Wales, Japan and two yet to be determined qualifiers.
Additional possibilities mean Los Pumas could find themselves facing the same teams from RWC 2007: France and Ireland. The worst case scenario would be sharing a pool with New Zealand and the RWC 2023 hosts, France. On the flip side it is probably that teams from category 2 will be seeking to avoid Argentina in the pool.
