World Rugby to ensure balanced pools at '27 World Cup with later draw

World Rugby has acknowledged the pools for the upcoming Rugby World Cup are not as balanced as they could be and have expressed their intention to address this for the 2027 tournament in Australia.

The pools were drawn on December 9 2020, a lot has changed since that date. The top 12 teams from across the globe had automatically qualified by finishing in the top three of their pool at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and were then split into 3 “bands”.

Band one comprised of the top four ranked sides in the world; South Africa, New Zealand, England and Wales.

Band two comprised of the next best four; Ireland, Australia, France and Japan.

Band three comprised of the best teams to miss the quarter-finals in 2019; Scotland, Argentina, Fiji and Italy.

Each band was randomly split into the four pools along with the qualifiers, who were yet to be established.

This method ensured the top four ranked sides at that time were separated at the pool stages but fast forward to the present day and two nations from band two currently occupy the top seeding in the world rankings.

This has left the top four ranked teams in World Rugby, who would consequently be considered the favourites for the tournament, likely facing each other in the quarter-finals.

“The reason why the pool draws were made early was because of assurity of the host cities and the hosts, knowing where teams are going, which is very important obviously for a tournament,” World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont told The Breakdown.

“But what we will be looking at doing, we will be looking at having the pool draw as late as possible so that you can get more consistent around the balance in a pool.

“There’s always going to be one pool that is tougher than the others. I speak from experience of chairing a host country that didn’t get beyond the quarter-finals in 2015. So, I know exactly what it’s like to be sitting around that table and looking at a pool draw.

“We will be looking to see how late, when we go to Australia, that we can make the pool draw.”

No further details have been confirmed on how late that pool draw will be made but as Sir Bill Beaumont mentioned, organising host cities as well as fan experiences require the decisions be made some time in advance.