2027 Rugby World Cup Draw Upon Us As Tournament Is Expanded
The draw for the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 will take place on Wednesday, 3 December, and the format for the expanded edition with 24 teams has changed.
The Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 will be the biggest tournament in the sport’s history, with 24 teams battling it out for the Webb Ellis Cup in two years. Australia will get things underway in the opening game at Perth Stadium on 1 October 2027.
In previous tournaments, going back to the Rugby World Cup 2003, we have traditionally had 20 teams that were divided into four pools of five teams. The top two teams from each pool would then progress to the quarter-finals, which were the first round of the knockouts.
Australia 2027 will have 24 teams, and therefore, the tournament requires a new format and one big change – a round of 16 as the first knockout game.
There will now be six pools with four teams in each. The top two teams from each pool will progress to the round of 16, while the four best third-place teams will also progress.
Those four teams will be determined by competition points first, and if that doesn’t separate the sides, then points difference and try difference will be the next factors used, respectively, to determine which teams make it out of the pool stage.
The 12 teams that finished in the top three of their pools at Rugby World Cup 2023 have automatically qualified for Rugby World Cup 2027.
These teams are – defending Champions South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, France, Scotland, Wales, Fiji, Australia, England, Argentina, and Japan.
The remaining 12 places are filled by nations that earned their spots through regional qualification tournaments.
These include the Rugby Europe Championship, Rugby Africa Cup, and other regional competitions.
The teams that qualified through this route are: Georgia, Spain, Romania, Portugal, Tonga, Canada, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Samoa, Zimbabwe, and Hong Kong China.
With the new format, there will be 52 games at Rugby World Cup 2027, an increase from the 48 we saw at Rugby World Cup 2023.
The games will be shared between seven iconic Australian cities: Adelaide | Tarntanya, Brisbane | Meeanjin, Melbourne | Narrm, Newcastle | Awabakal-Worimi, Perth | Boorloo, Sydney | Gadigal, and Townsville | Gurambilbarra.
