By JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer
Host Australia and three-time champion New Zealand were drawn into the same group Wednesday for the expanded Rugby World Cup in 2027, with the winner likely to meet defending champion South Africa in the quarterfinals.
No. 2-ranked New Zealand was the last team pulled out in the draw by World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson in Sydney. Australia had already been placed into Pool A from the second band of teams that were ranked from seventh to 12th.
“As an Australian, you always love to (play) New Zealand,” Wallabies captain Harry Wilson said, before proposing that the Bledisloe Cup showdown should be the tournament opener. “The opening match of a World Cup, doesn’t get much better than that!
“In the World Cup, if you want to win it, you’ve got to beat the best teams, and they’re obviously one of the best teams in the world.”
The All Blacks are on an 11-match winning streak against two-time World Cup champion Australia, which has slumped to No. 7 in the rankings. The Tasman rivals will be joined by Chile and Hong Kong in the group stage.
South Africa, aiming for a third consecutive title, was the next-to-last team pulled in the draw and landed in Pool B with Italy, Georgia and Romania.
The result means the 2023 finalists could meet in the quarterfinals, if both the Springboks and the All Blacks top their groups.
“We are pleased with the pool we have been drawn in, but this is a World Cup and every team will go out there with great passion and do their utmost to represent their nations with pride,” Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said in a statement. “There have been surprises in the tournament before, so we’ll need to be up mentally and physically for every match.”
England, winner of the last Rugby World Cup staged in Australia in 2003, was drawn into Pool F with Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe.
No. 6 Argentina was drawn into Pool C with Fiji, Spain and Canada, while three-time finalist France will face Japan, the United States and Samoa in Pool E. Ireland is in Pool D with Scotland, Uruguay and Portugal.
“There’s a lot of matchups — England-Wales, Ireland-Scotland — there’s a lot of clumps that are going to be teams that know each other, and play each other often,” Australia head coach Joe Schmidt said. New Zealand will “be looking at Australia and thinking, ‘Well, at least we’re going to know who we’re up against.’
“It’s a trans-Tasman battle which I think both teams are going to love having.”
France coach Fabien Galthié said his side can win the tournament after falling short as favorite on home soil in 2023, when it was agonizingly beaten by one point in the quarterfinals by South Africa.
“Yes, that’s our ambition. In a very clear manner I say yes,” Galthié said. “France has never done it and that’s our ambition. To be forever the first. The pressure is always there in a way and that’s normal.”
Galthié was pleased with the draw, even though he struck a cautious note.
“The team we know best is Japan, we’ll actually be facing them in Tokyo this summer,” he said. “It’s a group that appears manageable to us. It’s perfect for building momentum.”
The runner-up in Pool A will meet the runner-up in Pool E, likely Japan, in the Round of 16 and likely England in the quarterfinals. The winners of Pools C and D are seeded to meet in the quarterfinals.
The French are seeded to top Pool E, which would set up a last-16 match against the runner-up in Pool D and a likely quarterfinal against the winner of the second-place teams in Pool C and Pool F.
The tournament was expanded to 24 teams for the 2027 edition, which kicks off in Perth on Oct. 1 and culminates in a Nov. 13 final in Sydney.
The teams were divided into four bands of six based on World Rugby rankings at the time of the draw. Each of the six pools contain one team from each of the four bands.
The Australians, World Cup winners in 1991 and ’99 and runners-up the last time the tournament was played Down Under, missed a seeding in the top six after their first winless November tour to Europe since 1958.
The addition of four teams in the draw means the tournament will have a Round of 16 for the first time, a stage that World Rugby chairman Robinson predicted “brings greater jeopardy, earlier knockout drama, and even more entertainment from the opening matches.”
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