The 2018 Americas Championship, played at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonsville USA saw Jamaica overcome Canada 38-8 in the first semi-final whilst USA prevailed over Chile 62-0 in the second semi-final. Jamaica edged past USA 16-10 to qualify for the World Cup whilst USA progressed to the inter-regional repechage series.

In Europe qualifying operated on three levels in 2018. The 2018 European Championship (Euro A) was contested between France, Wales, Scotland and Ireland who played each other once each with the teams finishing in 1st and 2nd in the league progressing to the World Cup. With France topping the table and Wales as runners-up progressing to the World Cup, Scotland and Ireland moved into the following year’s European repechage tournament.

The Euro B competition, contested by Russia, Serbia and Spain would see the top two nations proceed to the European repechage in 2019. With each team winning one game each, Russia and Spain finished 1st and 2nd respectively based on points difference to have a second chance in 2019.

Meanwhile, Euro C, played in two pools of three with each team playing each other once. The north division, contested by Czechia, Germany and Norway was extremely competitive with each team winning one game and Norway narrowly topping the table on points difference. In the south division, Greece came out on top after wins over Malta and Ukraine. Greece and Norway met in London in early 2019, with Greece winning 56-26 to secure their place in the European repechage later that year.

The European qualification tournament took place in 2019, with Italy the 6th team to take part. Group A was contested by Ireland, Italy and Spain and Group B contested by Scotland, Greece and Serbia (who replaced Russia after their withdrawal, with the two top teams in each group earning qualification to the World Cup. Scotland and Ireland both won two games in their respective groups to qualify for the World Cup, with Italy and Greece qualifying as the second placed teams to complete Europe’s entries.

In the Middle East & Africa region, as Lebanon had earned automatic qualification, only South Africa remained who proceeded to the inter-regional repechage series.

The inter-regional repechage series took place in 2019, with Cook Islands hosting and beating South Africa 66-6 in Sydney in June before Cook Islands travelled to the USA and recorded a 38-16 victory to secure the final berth at the 2021 event.