The 2023 Rugby World Cup: 33 Facts You Might Not Know

The 2023 Rugby World Cup (which was hosted by France) is done and dusted. It was the 10th IRB Rugby World Cup tournament that was held (since the tournament’s inception in 1987).

There’s probably a lot that you don’t know about this particular edition of the Rugby World Cup, but today my aim is to change that…

Here are 33 Facts You Might Not Know About The 2023 IRB Rugby World Cup

1. Siya Kolisi (South Africa) became only the second player ever (and the first ever South African) to win the RWC twice as a captain – Kolisi was the captain in 2019 when South Africa won and he was the captain again in 2023 – the only player to ever win twice as a captain is Richie McCaw (New Zealand) who was the winning captain in 2011 and 2015.

2. Beauden Barrett (New Zealand) became the first player to ever score tries in two separate Rugby World Cup finals after scoring one in 2023 (and previously scoring one try in 2015).

3. Sam Whitelock (New Zealand) broke his third place tie with Sonny Bill Williams (New Zealand) for the most winning appearances (18) and he moved past Kevin Meleamu (19 winning appearances, New Zealand) and Richie McCaw (20 winning appearances, New Zealand) – since New Zealand made it to the finals.

Whitelock is now the player with the most winning appearances with 23, 3 winning appearances ahead of the past record holder, Richie McCaw.

4. Sam Whitelock (New Zealand) also broke the record for the most match appearances, previously held by Jason Leonard (England) and Richie McCaw (New Zealand) with 22 appearances each – Whitelock had 19 appearances before the 2023 RWC, now he has 26; Agustin Creevy (Argentina, 22 appearances) and James Slipper (21 appearances) also joined the top 5 rankings of the most appearances after the 2023 tournament with a second and third place tie, respectively.

5. Handré Pollard (South Africa) entered the top 5 of the most overall points across all players and tournaments, tying for 3rd place with Michael Lynagh at 195 points.

6. Henry Arundell (England) joined Chris Latham (Australia) and Josh Lewsey (England) as the player with the second most tries in one match (5), second only to to New Zealand’s Marc Ellis with 6 tries – Arundell’s 5 tries were achieved during England’s match with Chile; Darcy Graham (Scotland) also joined a list of 12 other players who achieved 4 tries in one match (Graham did so in the match against Romania).

7. Will Jordan (New Zealand) tied Jonah Lomu (NZ), Julian Savea (NZ) & Bryan Habana (South Africa) for the most tries in one tournament – 8.

8. George Ford (England) tied 3 other players for second place as the player with the most drop goals in a match (3) which was achieved during England’s match against Argentina.

9. PJ Van Lill (Namibia) and Aranos Coetzee (Namibia) climbed up in the rankings for the most losing appearances in the RWC – Van Lill is now tied for 2nd place with 2 other players (12 losing appearances) and Coetzee is right behind him with 11 losing appearances alongside 7 other players.

10. Wayne Barnes became the first referee to officiate in five editions of the Rugby World Cup.

11. Richie Mo’Unga (New Zealand) climbed up higher in the rankings of the players with the most overall conversions across World Cups – he is currently in 3rd place with 38 overall conversions.

12. Sam Cane (New Zealand) became the first player to ever receive a red card in the Rugby World Cup Final.

13. Mark Telea (New Zealand) broke the record for beating the most defenders during RWC finals (9), breaking Jonah Lomu’s record (8) from 1995.

14. Ardie Savea (New Zealand) broke the record for the most carries in RWC finals – 22, breaking Billy Vunipola’s record (19) from 2019.

15. Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa), broke the record for the most tackles in a RWC final (28) breaking Richie McCaw’s record (18 tackles) from 2011.

16. South Africa broke its tie with New Zealand (3 titles) and became the sole holder of the record for the most titles won since RWC’s inception in 1987 by winning their 4th title in 2023 – they previously won in 1995, 2007 and 2019.

17. South Africa (2019 Rugby World Cup winners) joined New Zealand as just the second country to ever win successive World Cup titles by winning in 2023 (NZ won successive titles in 2011 and 2015).

18. South Africa remains as the only nation to have won the Rugby World Cup after previously losing a match in the Pool stages – South Africa also became the only country to do so twice since they lost a Pool match against Ireland in 2023 and ended up winning.

19. South Africa maintained their 100% win rate in their finals appearances.

20. South Africa extended its 28 year-long streak of advancing to at least the quarter-finals in every Rugby World Cup since their first participation in 1995.

21. South Africa’s record as the only country to not have conceded at least one try during appearances in the final came to an end in 2023 due to New Zealand’s Beauden Barrett.

22. New Zealand broke their tie with Australia, England and South Africa and became the nation with the most finals appearances (5) since the tournament’s inception (they are also the nation with the most semi-finals appearances (9) and tied with France for the most quarter-finals appearances (10).

23. New Zealand extended their 35 year-long streak of advancing to at least the quarter-finals in every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987 (shared with Australia and France).

24. New Zealand became the first nation to cross the 50 matches won at the World Cup- they had won 49 matches before the tournament started – now they have won 54 matches.

25. New Zealand extended their record for the longest streak of scoring at least one try during a match at the RWC – they have scored at least one each of their last 39 RWC matches.

26. New Zealand’s streak of having won all of their pool matches at the RWC since the tournament’s inception in 1987 (31 consecutive pool matches) ended in 2023 due to their loss against France in the first Pool A match.

27. England joined Australia & New Zealand as the only nation to have won all three medals (gold, silver, bronze) after ending up third in 2023 – England won in 2003 and they were second in 1991, 2007 & 2019.

28. Australia broke their 35 year-long streak of advancing to at least quarter-finals in every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987 (shared with New Zealand and France) after being eliminated in the Pool stages in 2023.

29. France extended their 35 year-long streak of advancing to at least the quarter-finals in every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987 (shared with Australia and New Zealand).

30. Until 2019, Canada and Japan shared the record for the most appearances in the World Cup for Tier 2 nations, having appeared in all of the World Cups between its inception in 1987 and 2019, but in 2023, Japan became the sole holder of the record since Canada failed to qualify.

31. Since Italy failed to get into the quarter-finals, it maintains its record of being the only Tier 1 country to have never made it into the quarter-finals.

32. Namibia extended their record as the country with the most matches played at the RWC without winning a single one (26 after 2023 RWC).

33. The match between Georgia and Portugal in Pool C became only the 4th match ever to end up in a draw at the RWC with a score of 18-18 (7th if 3 matches that were cancelled in 2019 due to a typhoon and recorded as draws would be counted as well).

There you have it, 33 facts you might not have known about the 2023 IRB Rugby World Cup. Take note that these records have been collected by Betting Expert from various sources and extensively fact-checked.

Watch this space for updates in the Facts category on Interesting Facts.