Rugby World Cup 2019 Draw Revealed

The draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan has been made, and the Americas will not sleep easy after the results. Argentina have seen their fears realised as they have been drawn in the dreaded ‘Pool of Death’, in this case Pool C, along with Tier 1 nations England and France. Also in that group will be the Americas 1 qualifiers, either Canada or the USA, and Oceania 2, one of the Pacific Island nations.

Pool D will be the home for the Americas 2 qualifier, which will be contested by the loser of the upcoming series between Canada and the USA and the winner of the South American ‘A’ Championship. Australia headline the group with Wales, Georgia, and Oceania 1 completing a similarly tough pool.

Hosts Japan were the first team drawn and find themselves in Pool A, surely the least intimidating pool of the tournament. Ireland and Scotland will represent the home nations with Europe 1 and the Play-Off Winner, a home and away series between Europe 2 and Oceania 3 qualifiers.

Finally there are two heavyweights in Pool B with New Zealand and South Africa set to meet in the opening rounds. Italy, Africa 1, and the Repechage Winner. Four teams will play in a round-robin format to determine the final ticket to Japan.

 

POOL A	POOL B	POOL C	POOL D
Ireland	New Zealand	England	Australia
Scotland	South Africa	France	Wales
Japan	Italy	Argentina	Georgia
Europe 1	Africa 1	Americas 1	Oceania 1
Play-Off Winner	Repechage Winner	Oceania 2	Americas 2

 

If the teams qualified as they stand on the official World Rugby Rankings today, the final pools would be:

 

POOL A	POOL B	POOL C	POOL D
Ireland (4)	New Zealand (1)	England (2)	Australia (3)
Scotland (5)	South Africa (7)	France (6)	Wales (8)
Japan (11)	Italy (15)	Argentina (9)	Georgia (12)
Romania (16)	Namibia (19)	USA (17)	Fiji (10)
Samoa (14)	Spain (18)	Tonga (13)	Uruguay (21)

*Russia’s current rank is 20, while Canada is 22