2027 World Cup draw 'sharpens the mind' for Ireland

IT MAY BE two years away but Ireland now know how their path through the 2027 Rugby World Cup will start.

The pool draw for the 2027 tournament in Australia was held this morning, with Ireland placed in Pool D alongside Scotland, Uruguay and Portugal, offering plenty of familiarity and a welcome touch of novelty.

2027 will see Ireland meet Scotland at a World Cup for the third successive tournament. Ireland opened their 2019 pool campaign with a 27-3 defeat of the Scots in Yokohama, and recorded a 36-16 victory in Paris four years later. Ireland have won their last 11 against Scotland.

Ireland boast a 100% record against Portugal, but it’s a small sample size. The two sides met in a Test game for the first time ever over the summer, with Ireland winning a horribly one-sided game 106-7 in Lisbon.

Ireland’s meeting with Uruguay will mark the first time the two teams have met at Test level.

Farrell had the chance to react to the draw when he held a press conference at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon.

“Well, you could have put the bet on it being Scotland couldn’t you, with the way that it’s gone over the last couple of tournaments, but that’s good, it’s a great fixture obviously, they know each other well and will continue to do that over the coming years,” he said.

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“But for Uruguay and Portugal, we know a little bit about Portugal, we’ve played them once, trained against them actually a few times so we’ve followed their journey.

“Uruguay a little bit different and I know that Warren’s (Gatland) done a bit of work there as well so, but all in all, I was super excited actually, got the old hairs on the skin standing up, definitely, as in exciting you know, so that’s the way it should be.”

“It’s exciting, sharpens the mind a little bit,” added Ireland captain Caelan Doris.

“I’m back in Leinster this week, but it brings up some memories of the last World Cup and the realisation that there’s four campaigns from an Ireland perspective before we get into the World Cup, so it’s going to come fast.”

An expanded tournament will see 24 teams compete in Australia, while there’s also an extra knockout game with a round of 16 introduced. Ireland, famously, have never advanced past the quarter-final stages and while that will be an ambition again, Farrell says the group will be aiming to go all the way.

“Obviously I back myself and the rest of the coaches and the players and all the staff to go as far as we’d all hope, we’d have the ambition to win a World Cup, otherwise what’s the point?”

If Ireland were to advance as winners of Pool D, they would face the best third-placed team from Pool B/E/F, leading to a potential quarter-final against Argentina, should the Pumas top Pool C and then win a round of 16 game.

However should Ireland finish second in their pool, they would be looking at a round of 16 tie against the Pool E winners – likely France.

“You can try and second-guess it and think all different permutations are going to work out in a certain way, but we know that a World Cup always throws up these type of things, that’s why we love it so much,” Farrell said.

“I suppose you’re always looking at which side of the draw you could come out, but if you don’t look after your own side of things first and foremost then things could slightly happen a little bit differently. But having said that, everyone else in our pool is 100% cent going to be thinking in the same way.”

For Doris, today’s announcement was a short distraction from his return to Leinster camp this week. He was wearing his green Ireland polo shirt at the Aviva, but you can be sure his thinking is more focused on Leinster’s Champions Cup opener at home to Harlequins this weekend.

“There’s a fair bit of alignment between the two in terms of the common denominator being we want to get better as individuals from every aspect of the game. So me getting better and focusing on playing with Leinster feeds into Ireland hugely as well,” Doris said.

“I want to get better as a player, as a leader, so I’ve got an opportunity to do that this week and I don’t want there to be a difference in standards or in how I play when it’s international versus provincial, both Europe and URC.

“So it’s always about getting better, getting the most out of myself and pushing those around me. There’s obviously a good bunch of Leinster lads who are in the Ireland squad, so there’s a bit of carry over there. But yeah, it’s always just constant improvement as we go.”