The All Blacks have drawn hosts Australia in Pool A of the 2027 Rugby World Cup \u2013 the first time the trans-Tasman rivals will face off in the pool stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n
The other two teams in the pool are Chile and Hong Kong China, the latter nation having qualified for their first World Cup.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s draw was confirmed at an event in Sydney tonight. <\/p>\n
While the match schedule will not be released until February 3, it appears a formality that the All Blacks will play the Wallabies in the opening game in Perth on October 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
Wallabies captain Harry Wilson, discussing the draw afterwards on the broadcast, was in no doubt who his nation\u2019s first opponents will be.<\/p>\n
“Playing New Zealand in the opening match of the World Cup \u2013 it doesn\u2019t get much better than that,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Current head coach Joe Schmidt, who will give way to Les Kiss in the middle of next year, added: \u201cIt\u2019s a trans-Tasman battle which I think both teams are going to love.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be a great way to kick if off.\u201d<\/p>\n
World champions South Africa are in Pool B alongside Italy, Georgia and Romania.<\/p>\n
The pools are: <\/p>\n
Pool A: New Zealand, Chile, Australia, Hong Kong China<\/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
The next World Cup will be the first to feature six pools of four (24 teams in total), rather than the four pools of five (20 teams) held previously.<\/p>\n
It will also feature a \u201cround of 16\u201d for the first time following the pool stage. From that knockout match, the tournament will feature quarter-finals, semifinals and a final as usual.<\/p>\n
There will be 52 matches in total, rather than the 48 matches of past tournaments, but no team will play more than seven matches \u2013 as is traditional.<\/p>\n
The permutations of New Zealand being drawn in Pool A could potentially put them on a quarter-final collision course with South Africa if both nations top their pools and win their round of 16 match.<\/p>\n
Facing the Boks, clearly the No.1 side in the world at the moment and who thrashed the All Blacks in this year’s Rugby Championship, in a quarter-final would not be particularly appealing for the nation’s fans or potentially head coach Scott Robertson.<\/p>\n
The Boks beat the All Blacks 12-11 in the final of the last World Cup in France.<\/p>\n
Should the All Blacks finish second in their pool, their quarter-final opponents will almost certainly be the top team in Pool F which is likely to be England.<\/p>\n
The All Blacks, who have lost only one World Cup pool match dating back to the first tournament in 1987 – to hosts France in 2023 – last lost to Australia in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The All Blacks have drawn hosts Australia in Pool A of the 2027 Rugby World Cup \u2013 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[10751,64,63,760,15131,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-325920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-all-blacks","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-rugby-world-cup","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325920","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=325920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}