Rugby Europe Championship 2025

Rugby Europe has outlined the qualification process for the Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia, expanding the tournament to 24 teams. Four European teams will automatically qualify via the 2025 Rugby Europe Championship (REC), with the fifth-place team entering the World Rugby Repechage in November 2025.

Eight nations are devided in two pools based on the standings of last year's REC.

Pool A: Georgia, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland
Pool B: Portugal, Romania, Belgium, Germany


Tournament Format REC 2025:

Pool Stage: Three weekends in February, with each team playing five matches.
Play-offs and Finals: Semifinals on March 1-2, followed by final matches on March 16 to determine rankings from 1st to 8th place.

 

Pool B schedule:

31/01-1/02

Romania - Germany
Portugal - Belgium

8/02-9/02

Belgium - Romania (Stade Tondreau, Mons)
Portugal - Germany

15/02-16/02

Romania - Portugal
Germany - Belgium (Kassel, Germany)

 

Globally, 12 of 24 World Cup spots have been claimed already (top three teams from each pool in RWC France 2023). The remaining 12 teams will be decided through qualifiers:

Europe (4): REC 2025 top 4
Africa (1): Rugby Africa Cup 2025 champion
Asia (1): Asia Rugby Championship 2025 winner
South America (1): Sudamérica Rugby Championship 2025 winner
Pacific (3): Top 3 from the Pacific Nations Cup 2025 (excluding already qualified Fiji and Japan)
Play-off (1): South America vs. Pacific qualifier
Repechage (1): Winner


All matches will be streamed live on www.rugbyeurope.tv.