Rugby World Cup 2027: When the ‘later’ pool draw will occur after ex-World Rugby boss admitted lopsided 2023 tournament lacked ‘balance’
The William Webb Ellis Cup and an insert of the 2023 Rugby World Cup draw.
The draw for the 2027 Rugby World Cup will take place at a later date with the tournament in Australia set to feature 24 teams, an increase of four from the previous tournament.
12 teams secured qualification for Australia 2027 after finishing in the top three of their pool in France with a further four sides now qualifying through their performances in the Rugby Europe Championship in 2025.
The draw for the 2023 World Cup was subjected to mass criticism with World Rugby taking the decision not to use the updated world rankings into the respective bands due to the pandemic.
Later draw for Australia 2027
It also happened almost three years prior to the tournament with the draw taking place on December 14, 2020. This resulted in an incredibly lopsided tournament with the top four ranked teams – Ireland, New Zealand, France and South Africa – heading into the World Cup all on one side of the draw.
To avoid a repeat of that occurrence, then-World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont revealed in 2023 that the draw would take place later for Australia.
It has been confirmed that the 2027 World Cup draw will take place before the start of the 2026 Six Nations, presumably in December of this year after the Autumn Nations Series or early January next year.
Unlike the previous World Cup draw, all the teams that will feature at Australia 2027 will be confirmed before pools are drawn.
“The reason why the pool draws were made earlier was because of the surety of the host cities and knowing where teams were going, which is very important,” Beaumont told The Breakdown in July 2023.
“What we will be doing is looking to have the pool draw as late as possible so that you get more consistency around the balance in a pool.
“There’s always going to be one pool which is tougher than the others.
“When we go to Australia, we will be looking at how late we can make the pool draw.”
World Rugby boss Sir Bill Beaumont confirms Rugby World Cup draw changes
New format and qualification
The new World Cup format will feature six pools of four teams, with a round of 16 added prior to the quarter-finals.
World Rugby explained that the reasoning for this is to enable the tournament window to be reduced from seven to six weeks while promoting a rhythm that builds momentum across the pool phase and respects the same minimum number of rest days between matches as at France 2023.
The rest days were another complaint that arose during the 2023 tournament with Namibia notably playing their fourth and final pool stage match before New Zealand had even played their third game.
Georgia, Romania, Spain and Portugal have now joined France, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, champions South Africa, Scotland, Wales, Fiji, Australia, England, Argentina and Japan in securing qualification for RWC 2027 with eight places still yet to be claimed.
The 2025 Rugby Africa Cup champions will secure one of the spots and while that has historically been Namibia’s route to qualification, last year Zimbabwe won the tournament and will aim to make their third World Cup appearance having played in the 1987 and 1991 editions.
The Sudamerica Rugby Championship and Asia Rugby Men’s Championship 2025 champions will also claim a spot each with three teams qualifying via the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup (minus Fiji and Japan).
Sudamerica Rugby Championship 2025 runners-up will also face off against the Pacific Nations Cup’s bottom team (excluding qualified teams) for qualification with the last spot going to the winner of the Final Qualification Tournament.
