National team appearances in the Rugby World Cup

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This article lists the début of national teams that have so far qualified for the Rugby World Cup and their number of appearances.

1 Début of national teams
2 By number of appearances
3 Comprehensive team results
4 External links

23 nations have thus far qualified for the Rugby World Cup. After the inaugural 16 made their debut in 1987, at least one side has been new to every subsequent world cup.

Year	Nation(s)
1987	Australia, Argentina, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Tonga, United States, Wales and Zimbabwe
1991	Samoa (Western Samoa)
1995	Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and South Africa
1999	Namibia, Spain and Uruguay
2003	Georgia
2007	Portugal

Nation	Number of appearances	First appearance	Most recent appearance	Streak	Best result
Argentina	5	1987	2003	5	Quarter finals, 1999
Australia	5	1987	2003	5	Champions, 1991, 1999
Canada	5	1987	2003	5	Quarter finals, 1991
England	5	1987	2003	5	Champions, 2003
France	5	1987	2003	5	Losing finalist, 1987, 1999
Ireland	5	1987	2003	5	Quarter finals, 1987, 1991, 1995, 2003
Italy	5	1987	2003	5	Two wins, 2003
Japan	5	1987	2003	5	One win, 1991
New Zealand	5	1987	2003	5	Champions, 1987
Romania	5	1987	2003	5	One win, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003
Scotland	5	1987	2003	5	Fourth, 1991
Wales	5	1987	2003	5	Third, 1987
Fiji	4	1987	2003	2	Quarter finals, 1987
Samoa	4	1991	2003	4	Quarter finals, 1991, 1995
Tonga	4	1987	2003	3	One win, 1995, 1999
United States	4	1987	2003	2	One win, 1987, 2003
South Africa	3	1995	2003	3	Champions, 1995
Namibia	2	1999	2003	2	No games won
Uruguay	2	1999	2003	2	One win, 1999, 2003
Zimbabwe	2	1987	1991	2	No games won
Portugal	1	2007	2007	1	Competition yet to be played
Georgia	1	2003	2003	1	No games won
Côte d'Ivoire	1	1995	1995	1	No games won
Spain	1	1999	1999	1	No games won

Map of countries' best results

Legend

1st - Champions
2nd - Second place
3rd - Third place
4th - Fourth place
QF - Quarterfinals
R2 - Second Round
R1 - First Round
q - Qualified for forthcoming tournament

For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of qualified teams in each tournament (in parentheses) are shown.

Team	1987 (16)	1991 (16)	1995 (16)	1999 (20)	2003 (20)	2007 (20)
Argentina	R1	R1	R1	QF	R1	q
Australia	4th	1st	QF	1st	2nd	q
Canada	R1	QF	R1	R1	R1	q
Côte d'Ivoire			R1
England	QF	2nd	4th	QF	1st	q
Fiji	QF	R1		R2	R1	q
France	2nd	QF	3rd	2nd	4th	q
Georgia					R1	q
Ireland	QF	QF	QF	R2	QF	q
Italy	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	q
Japan	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	q
Namibia				R1	R1	q
New Zealand	1st	3rd	2nd	4th	3rd	q
Portugal						q
Romania	R1	R1	R1	R1	R1	q
Samoa⁽¹⁾		QF	QF	R2	R1	q
Scotland	QF	4th	QF	QF	QF	q
South Africa			1st	3rd	QF	q
Spain				R1
Tonga	R1		R1	R1	R1	q
United States	R1	R1		R1	R1	q
Uruguay				R1	R1
Wales	3rd	R1	R1	QF	QF	q
Zimbabwe	R1	R1