2017 AIN Rugby World Championship

The 2017 AIN Rugby World Championship will be the first AIN Rugby World Championship. It will run concurrently alongside the 2017 AIN Rugby Challenge, a second-tier competition consisting of lower-ranked nations within Alliance Rugby. On October 31 2016, Neu Westfalen were announced as the hosts for the 2017 competition. It will begin on Friday March 3 and conclude on Saturday April 8.

Qualification
The six highest-ranked member nations within Alliance Rugby automatically qualified for the event. However, the 5th and 6th-ranked nations in this event will be subject to a series of qualifying matches with the two highest-ranked nations in the 2017 AIN Rugby Challenge, meaning either or both could be relegated in 2018.


 * Jarraban
 * Neu Westfalen
 * New Duveland
 * Siculia
 * Teiko
 * Torainn

Match officials
Referees
 * Matthias Adler (Neu Westfalen)
 * John Kelly (New Duveland)
 * Rob O'Shaughnessy (Torainn)
 * Chris Owen (Jarraban)

Assistant referees
 * David Breton (New Duveland)
 * Alfonso Mancini (Siculia)
 * Phil Schultz (Neu Westfalen)

Television match officials
 * Arawa Bailey (Torainn)
 * Peter Boehm (Neu Westfalen)
 * Steve Lord (Jarraban)
 * Toyohiko Matsui (Teiko)

Warm-up matches
These matches will see Championship participants meet Challenge participants.