{"id":325575,"date":"2025-12-03T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325575\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:28:08","slug":"maro-itoje-eyes-world-cup-glory-after-england-dodge-big-guns-in-2027-draw-rugby-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325575\/","title":{"rendered":"Maro Itoje eyes World Cup glory after England dodge big guns in 2027 draw | Rugby World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maro Itoje has set his sights on Rugby World Cup<\/a> glory in Australia in 2027 after England were handed a \u00adpotentially favourable path through the tournament when the draw was made in Sydney on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

England, who have risen to third in the world rankings after an 11-match winning streak, emerged on the other side of the draw from the reigning world champions, South Africa, the three-times winners New Zealand and France.<\/p>\n

England are in Pool F with Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe at the expanded 24-team event with Italy, Australia, Ireland and Argentina probable opponents in the last 16 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ambition is to do very well and win this tournament,\u201d Itoje, the England captain, said. \u201cBut to do that we know we have to make sure we get our preparation right and the next two years leading to the World Cup is massive. We need to build \u00adthroughout time and make sure we\u2019re tracking in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s head coach, Steve Borthwick, said excitement around the draw was \u201cwonderful\u201d and \u00adechoed Itoje on the objective for 2027, 24 years after \u00adEngland dramatically defeated the Wallabies <\/a>in Sydney to become world champions for the first and only time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very clear in saying our aim is to win the World Cup and a number of other nations will be saying the same,\u201d Borthwick said. \u201cWe are working towards it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team is progressing, it\u2019s \u00adtransitioned a lot since the last World Cup over the last 18 months \u2026 I want to make sure that our \u00adsupporters in Australia in two years\u2019 time have loads to cheer about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideRugby World Cup 2027 drawShow<\/p>\n

Pool A New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Hong Kong<\/p>\n

Pool B South Africa, Italy, Georgia, Romania<\/p>\n

Pool C Argentina, Fiji, Spain, Canada<\/p>\n

Pool D Ireland, Scotland, Uruguay, Portugal<\/p>\n

Pool E France, Japan, USA, Samoa<\/p>\n

Pool F England, Wales, Tonga, Zimbabwe<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Asked for his memories of the Wales victory against the hosts \u00adEngland <\/a>at the 2015 tournament, Borthwick said: \u201cAs ever with every\u00a0England v Wales game, it was very hard-fought and I am sure the game in Australia will be exactly the same: full of passion and full of spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itoje said he will relish the expectation that seems bound to grow as a buoyant England build towards the tournament. \u201cThe converse would not be ideal, if this England team had no expectation or you played for a team that had no hopes,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a situation I don\u2019t want to be in. If we want to go out and do what we want to do, we have to walk that line and welcome whatever comes. If that\u2019s part of it we have to welcome that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Wales repeat of 2015 seems a remote prospect \u2013 they have slipped to 11th in the world and were humbled in a record 73-0 home defeat by South Africa<\/a> last Saturday \u2013 and pool-stage jeopardy is lessened with four third-placed teams qualifying.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just exciting,\u201d said Steve Tandy, the Wales head coach. \u201cGoing to the World Cup, seeing the draw, different format with smaller groups \u2013 we just can\u2019t wait to get started. I know it\u2019s two years away but the excitement builds straight away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose big games against England are always massive and being in the World Cup they seem bigger. But Tonga and Zimbabwe pose different challenges. Overall it is just unbelievably exciting and obviously most people will focus on the England game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scotland will again meet Ireland in the pool stage having been defeated by them at the 2019 tournament in Japan <\/a>and again in France four years later<\/a>. \u201cIt would help massively if we got on the right side of the result for a change,\u201d said Gregor Townsend, the\u00a0Scotland head coach. \u201cWe know how tough it will be and we\u2019ll be doing everything we can to win that\u00a0game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he would have preferred to avoid Ireland, whom Scotland last defeated in 2017 with 11 consecutive losses coming since then, Townsend said: \u201cWhen you see the teams in the top six they\u2019re all quality sides. Some have done really well at World Cups, some have done really well in Six Nations. You know it\u2019s going to be a very difficult game. It\u2019s one we want to win and top our pool because things get easier if you go through first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maro Itoje has set his sights on Rugby World Cup glory in Australia in 2027 after England were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-325575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}