Ireland will learn their Rugby World Cup fate next May as the date for the Japan 2019 draw was confirmed.
As things stand, Ireland would be a top seed courtesy of their world number four ranking.
Joe Schmidt’s men, who face Australia on Saturday (5.30pm, live on RTÉ 1 Radio and RTÉ2), are ahead of South Africa, Wales, Scotland and France.
The 12 directly qualified teams will be seeded based on the World Rugby Rankings on 10 May 2017.
The draw will take place in Kyoto on that date.
The tournament will comprise 20 teams allocated into four pools: The 12 teams that directly qualified from RWC 2015 in England plus eight teams that will come through the global qualifying process which kicked off in St Vincent and the Grenadines in March of this year.
The direct qualifiers are RWC 2015 winners New Zealand, runners-up Australia, losing semi-finalists South Africa and Argentina, losing quarter-finalists Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France plus England, Japan, Georgia and Italy, who finished third in their respective pools.
Like the past four Rugby World Cups, there will be four pools of five teams.
The eight places available through the qualifying process will be banded according to strength and known as bands four and five. These will also be drawn randomly across the pools.
The 12 directly qualified teams will be allocated into the top three bands as follows:
Band 1: The four highest-ranked directly qualified teams (1-4 in World Rugby Rankings)
Band 2: The next four highest-ranked directly qualified teams (5-8 in World Rugby Rankings)
Band 3: The final four directly qualified teams
The eight qualifying places will be allocated into the other two bands.
Meanwhile, the Ireland and Australia teams for the last of the November internationals will be announced this afternoon.
