Everything you need to know about the Pool line-ups and new-look tournament structure in Australia.
The Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 draw has now taken place, meaning that all 24 teams know who they’ll be facing in their first three matches in Australia.
An expanded World Cup means a new format for the competition, a new seeding system, and more teams than ever making it through to the knockout stages. Read on to find out who was drawn with who at the 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup draw and how the new tournament structure will work.
Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027: The Pools
This is how the 24 teams in the 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup will line up:
Pool A
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Chile
- Hong Kong China
Pool B
- South Africa
- Italy
- Georgia
- Romania
Pool C
- Argentina
- Fiji
- Spain
- Canada
Pool D
- Ireland
- Scotland
- Uruguay
- Portugal
Pool E
- France
- Japan
- USA
- Samoa
Pool F
- England
- Wales
- Tonga
- Zimbabwe
The match schedule is set to be announced in January 2026, though we already know that hosts Australia will be playing in the opening fixture in Perth on Friday 1 October 2027. Their opponents are currently TBC, but don’t bet against a blockbuster curtain-raiser against the All Blacks…
24 competing teams? Aren’t there usually 20?
Yes, the previous seven World Cups have featured 20 teams but the 2027 tournament (the 11th edition of the competition) has expanded the field to include 24. That also requires a change of format.
Whereas the old 20-team system featured four pools of five teams, the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 will have six pools of four teams – just like football’s European Championship.
In the new-look competition, 16 teams will make it through the pool stages, rather than the eight who survived in the original format. This necessitates an additional round of 16.
The route to lifting the William Webb Ellis Cup will now look like this:
- 3 pool matches
- Round of 16 match
- Quarter-final
- Semi-final
- Final
Although there’s a whole extra round of matches, the two teams that reach the final will still feature in seven matches. This is because each team will play one game fewer in the pool stages.
But while the total number of matches in the tournament increases from 48 to 52, the duration of the tournament will actually decrease. This is because there’s no longer any need for teams to have a “fallow” week during the pool stages, an inevitable consequence of five-team pools. So, even with the mandatory minimum of five rest days between games, this World Cup will be a whole week shorter than its predecessor at just 43 days.
The 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup draw took place in Sydney on Wednesday 3 December 2025 (Mark Kolbe – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
What do teams need to do to qualify for the round of 16?
This change makes the competition less elegant than the old format, in which the top two teams from each pool made it through to the knockouts.
Although the pool winners and runners-up will still qualify for the round of 16 automatically, there’s now room for four more places in the knockout stages. These will be filled by the four best third-placed teams, determined by (in this order) competition points, points difference and try difference.
The result is a rather less efficient way of eliminating teams, seeing as 36 games will be played in order to send just eight teams home (a third of the field), compared to the 40 matches that removed 12 sides (three fifths of the sides) in the old days.
This also means less pool game jeopardy for the leading teams, which may make the early stages of the competition less exciting.
Does it matter which pool your team is drawn in?
The introduction of third-placed qualifiers does create an intriguing irregularity. While the winners of Pools A, B, C and D will play their round of 16 matches against third-placed teams, the winners of Pools E and F will face the runners-up of Pools D and B, respectively – in theory, easier ties.
World Rugby claims that the imbalance will be addressed in the quarter-finals. For example, if England win Pool F as expected, they’re likely to face Italy or Georgia (Pool B runners up) in the round of 16, followed by a quarter-final against another runner-up (most likely Australia or Japan). In other words, they could avoid facing any pool winners en route to the semi-finals.
When did the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 draw take place?
The 24 competing teams learned who they’ll be playing – and started planning out their itineraries – when the draw took place in Sydney, Australia on Wednesday 3 December 2025.
How was the draw organised?
Each of the 24 qualifying teams were seeded according to their world ranking at the start of December. They were then sorted into four bands of six teams based on those seedings.
Each pool included a team from each of the four bands. The four bands looked like this:
Band 1
South Africa, New Zealand, England, Ireland, France, Argentina
Band 2
Australia, Fiji, Scotland, Italy, Wales, Japan
Band 3
Georgia, Uruguay, Spain, USA, Chile, Tonga
Band 4
Samoa, Portugal, Romania, Hong Kong China, Zimbabwe, Canada
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