2023 World Rugby U20 Championship

The 2023 World Rugby U20 Championship was the 13th edition of the premier age-grade rugby union competition. The tournament is hosted in South Africa for the second time, previously being held in 2012.

The 2023 under 20 competition (alongside the Trophy) was the first global U20 competition held since 2019, with the 2020 edition, scheduled to be held in Italy, cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing instability in the world following the pandemic delaying the return of the competition. There were however various regional U20 competitions with the Six Nations Under 20s Championship and Oceania Rugby Under 20 Championship continuing to take place.

Teams
The teams that participated in the tournament are listed in the table below, with a summary of their previous best results at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship included.

Match officials
The following officials were named for the tournament, with an official panel of 10 referees designated to oversee the game. Assistant Referees for the pool stage were local South African referees, whilst in a World Rugby first, a TMO bunker was trialled whereby the Television Match Official focussed on the game, and a Split Screen Operator focussed on any yellow cards needing an upgrade to a red card.


 * Referees
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Ben Breakspear (Wales)
 * Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
 * Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
 * Morné Ferreira (South Africa)
 * 🇦🇺 Reuben Keane (Australia)
 * 🇳🇿 Angus Mabey (New Zealand)
 * 🇯🇵 Takehito Namekawa (Japan)
 * 🇫🇷 Luc Ramos (France)
 * 🇦🇷 Damian Schneider (Argentina)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Anthony Woodthorpe (England)


 * Assistant Referees
 * Christopher Allison (South Africa)
 * Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa)
 * Griffin Colby (South Africa)
 * Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa)
 * AJ Jacobs (South Africa)
 * Phumzile Mbewu (South Africa)
 * Dylen November (South Africa)


 * Television match officials / Split Screen Operator
 * Ben Blain (Scotland)
 * 🇦🇺 Brett Cronan (Australia)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tom Foley (England)
 * Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
 * Marius Jonker (South Africa)
 * 🇮🇹 Matteo Liperini (Italy)
 * Joy Neville (Ireland)
 * 🇳🇿 Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ian Tempest (England)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
 * Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

Pool stage standings
Seedings for the knockout stage based on results from the pool stage:.