It may be just under two years out from the tournament, but Andy Farrell and his Ireland team will find out on Wednesday morning who they will face at the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
The draw for the expanded men's RWC takes place in Sydney tomorrow morning, and here’s everything you need to know about who Ireland could face, and how the tournament bracket will look.
WHEN IS THE DRAW?
The draw takes place in Sydney, and gets under way at 9am Irish time.
WHERE CAN I SEE IT?
For Irish viewers, World Rugby will be broadcasting the draw on RugbyPass TV, as well as World Rugby’s Youtube page.
There will be plenty of reaction across RTÉ Sport on Wednesday, with an RTÉ Rugby podcast available on Wednesday afternoon with Bernard Jackman and Jonny Holland.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell and captain Caelan Doris are also due to speak to the media at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
HOW HAS THE FORMAT CHANGED?
The 2027 edition of the Rugby World Cup – the 11th since the inaugural event in 1987 – will see a couple of tweaks to the current format which had been used since 2003.
The first change will be an increase in the number of teams, with the tournament expanding from 20 to 24 countries in 2027.
And while will also increase the number of games in the tournament from 48 to 52, it has allowed organisers to streamline the World Cup from a seven-week competition to a six-week championship.
In previous men’s Rugby World Cups, countries were spilt into four pools of five teams, with the top two in each progressing to the quarter-finals.
Under the new format, we will see six pools of four.
And with an even number of teams in each pool, there will be no fallow week for teams during the early rounds, which has allowed organisers run the tournament off faster.
WHERE WILL IRELAND BE SEEDED?
The seedings are based on world rankings of the teams who qualified as of 1 December 2025.
Band 1 contains the six highest ranked teams in the world, with the next six in Band 2, Band 3 and Band 4, respectively.
Each pool will contain one team from each band.
Ireland will be in Band 1, along with defending champions South Africa, New Zealand, England, France and Argentina, meaning they will not face any of those five teams in the pool stage.
From Band 2, Ireland will be drawn alongside one of hosts Australia, Fiji, Scotland, Italy, Wales and Japan. As hosts, Australia are already confirmed to be in Pool A.
In Band 3, one of Georgia, Uruguay, Spain, USA, Chile and Tonga will face Ireland.
And there will also be one Band 4 team in the pool; Samoa, Portugal, Romania, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe or Canada.
HOW WILL THE KNOCKOUT STAGE WORK?
While the new format will make the tournament less drawn out, and will protect against a repeat of the lob-sided nature of the 2023 tournament, it is doing so at the expense of real jeopardy.
In 2027, we will see a Round of 16 at the World Cup for the first time, meaning there will be 36 games played before we eliminate just eight teams.
The six pool winners, and the six runners-up will all advance to the knockout stage, while the four best third-place finishers will also qualify.
For those more familiar with soccer, it’s the same format used by UEFA for the European Championships since 2016.
WHO PLAYS WHO IN THE KNOCKOUTS?
That’s largely down to the luck of the draw.
The bracket for the Round of 16 and beyond is laid out from the start (see below), so you can start plotting your route, and likely opponents, as soon as the draw is made.
WHEN WILL FIXTURES BE CONFIRMED?
Tournament organisers say they will confirm the match schedules on 3 February 2026.
Tickets will be available from 18 February, for supporters who have registered their details with World Rugby.
