RWC 2023 – New Matches at the World Cup

RWC 2023 will feature new matches at the Rugby World Cup. There are to be fixtures that have never taken place before in RWC history. There are new games in each of the four pools. Three teams will be facing an entire new list of teams in their respective RWC 2023 matches.

 

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POOL A
Rugby World Cup 2023 will be all new ground for Uruguay. Los Teros competed at RWCs 1999, 2003, 2015 and 2019. Uruguay face France, Italy, Namibia and New Zealand in Pool A. All matches are to be firsts at Rugby World Cups.

Uruguay open their campaign against France in Lille. Los Teros then face Italy in Nice before playing matches three and four in Lyon against Namibia and New Zealand. Uruguay’s matches against France and New Zealand will be the first-ever meetings between the countries.

Uruguay have faced Italy and Namibia four times each in the past. Italy won all four against Uruguay with the closest being the most recent match between the teams. Italy won 17-10 in Parma in 2021. Uruguay has a 3-1 record against Namibia. Los Teros won a series in Namibia in 2017 but the Africans won the most recent meeting between the teams 30-28 in 2019.

 

 

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POOL B
Romania competed at all Rugby World Cups with the exception of RWC 2019 while Tonga played at all tournaments accept RWC 1991. Despite being regulars the teams have never been in the same pool at a RWC. This will change in 2023. The teams are to meet in Lille on the final day of the pool stage.

The four previous test matches between Romania and Tonga have split results; both teams have two wins. Romania’s only previous match against South Africa was their meeting at RWC 1995 in Cape Town. Tonga vs Ireland and South Africa are also rare fixture. There have been just two of each.

For back-to-back Rugby World Cups, Ireland and Scotland are in the same pool. Two further repeated fixtures of note as South Africa vs Tonga and Romania vs Scotland. Both matches took place at RWC 2007, the last Rugby World Cup hosted by France. However, there is a difference as Edinburgh, Scotland was the location for the RWC 2007 match between Scotland and Romania.

 

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POOL C
RWC 2023 will be the second Rugby World Cup for Portugal. The first was also played in France. In RWC 2007 Os Lobos faced Italy, New Zealand, Romania and Scotland. In short, Portugal has never faced any of their RWC 2023 opponents in a previous Rugby World Cup match.

Portugal open their campaign against Wales in Nice. They will play their second and fourth pool matches in Toulouse, taking-on Georgia and Fiji. Game three for Portugal will be against Australia in St. Etienne.

On the one hand, every match is new for Portugal. On the other hand, the four other Pool C members were also all grouped together at the previous Rugby World Cup. In Japan 2019 Australia, Fiji, Georgia and Wales were joined by Uruguay in Pool D.

Portugal have played their rivals 0, 1, 2, and 24 times each respectively. Australia and Portugal have never met previously. Their match in St. Ettienne will be the first ever between the countries. Portugal vs Wales will be the second meeting between the teams. Wales won the prior match 102-11 in 1994. Fiji defeated Portugal 26-17 in Lisbon in 2005 and 36-13 in Lisbon in 2013.

Portugal and Georgia are familiar rivals. Their annual meetings in the European Championship have an overall record of 17 wins for Georgia and 4 for Portugal.

 

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POOL D
Chile are the newcomers to the Rugby World Cup. The South Americans will compete in Pool D. Their opening match will be against Japan in Toulouse. Game two will be 240km to the west in Bordeaux against Samoa. Chile then face England in the far north of Lille before facing Argentina in Nantes in their fourth match.

Not only are the pool matches new for Chile, Los Cóndores have, in fact, never played against England, Japan or Samoa. Chile have played Argentina on many previous occasions, of them 39 have been in fully capped test matches.

There will be no other new Rugby World Cup matches in Pool D. Japan and Samoa were in the same pool at RWC 2019 as were Argentina and England. Japan faced Samoa at RWCs 1999, 2015 and 2019 but Japan’s only RWC match against England was at RWC 1987 and against Argentina was at RWC 1999.

Argentina faced Samoa at all three Rugby World Cups in the 1990’s but has not faced Samoa since. Upon facing Chile in Bordeaux, Samoa will become the first country to face all three South American RWC competitors. Samoa faced Uruguay at RWC 2003. England also faced Uruguay at RWC 2003 and will thus join Samoa in having faced all three South American teams when they face Chile in Lille.