The 2027 World Cup will get off to a low-key start with Australia kicking off against Hong Kong after the organisers opted against beginning the tournament with the Wallabies\u2019 blockbuster pool fixture against New Zealand. When Australia were drawn in the same pool as their arch-rivals in December it was widely expected that such a mouth-watering fixture would raise the curtain on the tournament.<\/p>\n
However, with the first match taking place on Australia\u2019s west coast in Perth on 1 October, organisers have opted to pit Hong Kong \u2013 competing at their first World Cup \u2013 against the Wallabies in what is sure to be a one-sided affair. The opening weekend of the tournament features just one fixture involving two tier-one nations \u2013 South Africa against Italy.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s fixture against the All Blacks will take place on the second weekend of the tournament in Sydney, where a bigger stadium will maximise exposure.<\/p>\n
England, meanwhile, will begin their campaign in Brisbane against Tonga on Saturday 2 October before locking horns with Zimbabwe \u2013 appearing at the World Cup for the first time since 1991 \u2013 in Adelaide on Friday 8 October and finishing their pool-stage campaign against Wales in Sydney on Saturday 16 October. Should they progress as expected, Borthwick\u2019s side will have to crisscross Australia with a last-16 trip to Perth on the cards where they could face Italy.<\/p>\n
Borthwick is planning a reconnaissance mission to Australia but with the Rugby Football Union\u2019s performance operations manager, Charlotte Gibbons, seconded to the British & Irish Lions tour last year, the head coach believes England will leave no stone unturned in their preparations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the clarity from this announcement, we can also now start our own planning, to ensure we arrive in Australia ready to perform at our best,\u201d the England head coach said. \u201cBeing based across Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney gives us the opportunity to play in three outstanding stadiums in a country rich in rugby and World Cup history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wales will begin their campaign against Zimbabwe, Scotland start against Uruguay and Ireland open up against Portugal. Ireland will face Scotland in Perth on 10 October.<\/p>\n
The 2027 World Cup is the first to feature 24 teams after the decision to expand the tournament and will include what is being billed as \u201cSuper Sunday\u201d, with five fixtures taking place on 17 October. The schedule has been designed to be \u201cweekend focused\u201d to maximise global impact and attendance, with three blocks of 12 matches from Friday to Monday in the pool stages before the round of 16. The first tickets are available from 18 February.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve assembled the most compelling match schedule to date, carefully designed to balance player welfare, fan experience and global reach,\u201d the World Rugby chair, Brett Robinson, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2027 World Cup will get off to a low-key start with Australia kicking off against Hong Kong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-404672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}