Bands Finalized for Rugby World Cup 2027 Seedings and Draw

by November 23, 2025

written by November 23, 2025

The bands have been finalized for the Rugby World Cup 2027 seedings and draw. All twenty-four teams now know which Band they are in ahead of the draw which will take place on Wednesday, December 03 in Sydney, Australia.

As tournament hosts, Australia have been guaranteed to be placed in Pool A. This means that Australia will be positioned there from Band B based on Australia’s World Ranking at the completion of their international activity for 2025.

WHO ARE THE 24 TEAMS?

Australia qualified automatically as the host nation of Rugby World Cup 2027. Additional automatic qualifying teams are those who finished in the top three spots of the pools at Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. Those teams were Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Japan, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales and South Africa (champions).

The twelve other places were determined via Rugby World Cup Qualifiers. The process began in 2024 with the twelve spots being claimed in 2025. Georgia, Portugal, Romania and Spain qualified from Europe, Zimbabwe qualified from Africa, Hong Kong Qualified from Asia, Canada, Tonga and the USA qualified from Pacific, Uruguay qualified from South America, Chile qualified from a regional play-off and Samoa qualified via repechage.

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2027 – SEEDINGS AND BANDS

The twenty-four teams are seeded from one to twenty-four based on World Rugby’s world rankings as of December 03, 2025. The twenty-four teams are organized into four bands of six teams with each pool having one team from each of the four bands.

The November 2025 Internationals serve as the final opportunity for teams to improve their ranking ahead of the seedings for the bands and the draw. Wales defeated Japan at the death to move into Band 2 while Japan recovered by defeating Georgia in much the same way.

JAPAN BEAT GEORGIA AT THE DEATH TO SWITCH BANDS