World Rugby is an international federation and a global movement comprising more than 500 million fans and eight million players within 134 national member federations affiliated through six regional associations.
Located in Dublin, Ireland, World Rugby’s purpose is to grow rugby by making it more relevant and accessible, with a vision of a global sport for all, true to its values.
The driving force behind the sport’s significant growth has been World Rugby’s portfolio of major events, from the flagship men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups and U20 Championship, that celebrates the future stars of the sport, to the excitement of the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens and HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series which are instrumental in attracting new fans.
The financial success of the men’s Rugby World Cup enables World Rugby to invest record sums in the development and growth of the sport from the playground to the podium, ensuring that the sport is as accessible and enjoyable for as many people as possible. Between 2020-23, the international federation will invest more than £565 million in the sport.
Never afraid to innovate, World Rugby is able to adapt its competition programmes to reflect the increasing diversity of attractions from which the public can now choose. Attracting, and most importantly retaining, the young as both participant and spectator are essential if rugby union is to retain its appeal.
World Rugby is proud of its Olympic Games inclusion and in 2010 World Rugby became a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), and the sport returned to the Olympic Games programme at Rio 2016 with rugby sevens.
World Rugby recognises that rugby union is competing for the public’s attention in an ever more varied and complex media and entertainment-driven world, but also that the federation properly embrace matters touching on social responsibility, the environment and all matters that help advance rugby as a force to change the world for good.
