Rugby World Cup 2027 will be the eleventh edition of the Men’s Rugby World Cup. It comes 40 years after the inaugural tournament which was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia in 1987. The 2027 edition is the third to feature matches in Australia and the second to be entirely hosted by the world’s sixth largest country.
Australia enter as two-time former champions with South Africa being the reigning champions. The tournament also features newcomers with Hong Kong having successfully qualified for a Men’s Rugby World Cup for the first time.
The tournament will be comprised of a total of 52 matches; this marks an increase from 48 as used in Rugby World Cup 2003 and all Men’s tournaments since then. The change includes expansion from 20 to 24 teams and the introduction of an addition round of knock-out competition between the pool stage and the Quarter Finals: the round-of-16.
The city of Perth in Western Australia will have the honor of hosting the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2027. It is a repeat host city from the 2003 tournament and Perth Stadium is one of eight venues selected from seven Australian cities to host tournament matches. The other host cities are Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney and Townsville.
The opening match will be played on Friday, October 01 in Perth. The Wallabies will take-on Hong Kong in the tournament opener. This decision to open with this fixture has received criticism from local media. It comes after tournament organizers failed to secure Australia’s largest venue, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Plans had been for the MCG to host Australia vs New Zealand. That match will instead be played in Sydney.
The match scheduling itself also has critics. There will be no matches played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Instead, matches have been crammed into slots from Fridays to Mondays. This comes with the consequence of many afternoon kick-off times which will be a negative in the Americas with Uruguay hit notably hard with unfavorable kick-off times.
The Wallabies three pool matches will be in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane. The three cities are home to Super Rugby Pacific teams: Western Force, Waratahs and Reds respectively. Australia’s match against Chile will be on the final weekend of the pool stage. Chile has the unfavorable task of playing in both Perth and Townsville; the two cities teams arguably most wanted to avoid based on location (Perth) and temperatures (Townsville).
In addition to Australia facing Hong Kong for the first time, Rugby World Cup 2027 has a number of other firsts. For the Americas the long-wait of Argentina vs Canada in a Men’s Rugby World Cup will end. The teams will meet on Monday, October 04 in Brisbane.
The Americas will have a record number of five participants in the tournament. Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are all returnees from France 2023 while Canada and the USA both successfully qualified to secure places after they missed out on qualifying for the 2023 tournament.
- Click here for ARGENTINA’s match schedule for the pool stage.
- Click here for CHILE’s match schedule for the pool stage.
- Click here for URUGUAY’s match schedule for the pool stage.
- Click here CANADA’s match schedule for the pool stage.
- Click here for the USA’s match schedule for the pool stage.
