{"id":404729,"date":"2026-02-03T00:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/404729\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:37:07","slug":"rugby-world-cup-2027-sydney-to-host-irelands-opening-game-against-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/404729\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby World Cup 2027: Sydney to host Ireland’s opening game against Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland will begin their 2027 Rugby World Cup campaign on Monday, 4 October against Portugal in Sydney (07:15 BST).<\/p>\n

The redeveloped Sydney Football Stadium, which has a capacity of 42,500, will host the first meeting between the sides at a Rugby World Cup and is the scene of Ireland’s victory over Namibia at the 2003 tournament when known as Aussie Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ireland’s last meeting with Portugal occurred in July 2025 as they ran up a record score in a 106-7 win during their summer tour.<\/p>\n

Following their opener, Andy Farrell’s squad will then make the long trip to Western Australia for their second Pool D fixture when they take on Scotland<\/a> at the 60,000-capacity Perth Stadium on Sunday, 10 October (10:45 BST).<\/p>\n

Ireland’s last Test match in Perth occurred back in 2006 at the now demolished Subiaco Oval when falling to a 37-15 defeat by Australia.<\/p>\n

Perth Stadium opened in 2018 and was the scene of the first game of the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia when they scored a 54-7 win over Western Force.<\/p>\n

Ireland’s final game of the pool phase will see them cross country once again with the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne hosting their clash with Uruguay on Sunday, 17 October (04:45 BST).<\/p>\n

The 53,000-capacity closed-roof venue played host to two of Ireland’s games in the 2003 Rugby World Cup – the 17-16 pool defeat by Australia before a 43-21 quarter-final loss to France.<\/p>\n

A 2008 Test match defeat by the hosts was the last time Ireland appeared at the venue, but they did enjoy a victory in Victoria’s state capital during their 2-1 series win in 2018 with that game taking place at AAMI Park.<\/p>\n

Should Ireland advance to the last 16 as Pool D winners, they will face a best third-place team at Docklands Stadium on Sunday, 24 October (06:45 BST), while second place will see them at the same venue the previous day, 23 October at 09:15.<\/p>\n

A return to Perth will be required should Ireland emerge as one of the best third-place qualifiers with that game slated for 23 October (11:45).<\/p>\n

Ireland’s 2027 Rugby World Cup Pool D fixtures (all times BST)<\/p>\n

4 October: Ireland v Portugal, Sydney Football Stadium, 07:15<\/p>\n

10 October: Ireland v Scotland, Perth Stadium, 10:45<\/p>\n

17 October: Ireland v Uruguay, Docklands Stadium, Melbourne, 04:45<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland will begin their 2027 Rugby World Cup campaign on Monday, 4 October against Portugal in Sydney (07:15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-404729","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\/404729","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=404729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}