What Would Rugby World Cup 2027 Be Like With Midweek Matches?

Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2027 will feature a total of 52 matches. It is scheduled to take place in Australia from October 01 to November 13 2027. The match schedule for the tournament sees matches taking place on restricted days of the week: Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.

Television viewers and touring spectators will have a different experience compared to RWC 2023 in France and earlier editions of the Men’s Rugby World Cup because Australia 2027 will not include midweek matches.

France faced both Namibia and Uruguay on Thursdays at RWC 2023 and Italy faced Uruguay on Wednesday. Namibia vs Uruguay was also a Wednesday fixture. In addition, New Zealand vs Uruguay was a Thursday fixture as was Japan vs Samoa.

The decision to exclude Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from RWC 2027 means more weekend matches. One result is a record five matches taking place on the same day. Under the branding of “Super Sunday,” World Rugby and Rugby Australia decided to end the pool phase with Italy vs Georgia, Ireland vs Uruguay, Scotland vs Portugal, France vs Samoa and South Africa vs Romania on the same day.

Increased matches on distributed across fewer match days affects kick-off times. As a result, World Rugby and Rugby Australia have handed teams matches at unfavorable kick-off times in Africa, Europe, South America and North America.

Critical analysis from ‘Tier 2 Rugby’ on X points out that the probable battle for second in Pool B between Italy and Georgia will kick-off at 3:15am in Italy and 5:15am in Georgia. In addition, Wales vs Zimbabwe will be 3:45am (GMT/UTC) and 4:45am in Zimbabwe while Spain’s long-awaited RWC return will be a 4:15am kick-off on a Monday. In comparison, only two matches at RWC 2003 in Australia kicked-off before 7am GMT/UTC.

On the one hand, rather than tuning-in to watch multiple matches back-to-back, viewers may instead require selecting which game(s) to watch. On the other hand, the East Asia and Oceania market will be spoiled for choice.

AUSTRALIAN TIME ZONE

Australia has multiple time zones and they are do not always operate on the same time difference. The states of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia have Day Light Savings from the first Sunday of October. This means Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney will be 1 hour ahead of Brisbane and Townsville as of day three of the World Cup. It also means that Adelaide remains 30 minutes behind both Melbourne and Sydney.

In addition to the Queensland host cities of Brisbane and Townsville, Western Australia does not adopt Daylight Saving Time. As a result, Perth will be 3 hours behind Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney, 2 hours and 30 minutes behind Adelaide and 2 behind Brisbane and Townsville in October.

In the UK, British Summer Time (BST, UTC+1) shifts to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, UTC+0) on the last Sunday of October. This is after the RWC 2027 pool stage will have been completed. The following table shows the time differences within Australia and compared to the GMT/UTC.

AEDT: Australian Eastern Daylight Time
AEST: Australian Eastern Standard Time
ACDT Australian Central Daylight Time
AWST: Australian Western Standard Time
UTC = Coordinated Universal Time

SCHEDULE ADJUSTED TO INCLUDE MIDWEEK MATCHES

The following table has been arranged to closely replicate the official match schedule for RWC 2027. It utilizes two additional match days which would not need to add to the overall total due to Round-of-16. Australia 2027 has the Round-of-16 played over two days. The model in place for the tournament features 6 day turn-arounds which allows for adjustments for the Round-of-16 played from Friday to Monday.

The table provides an example of what RWC 2027 would or may be like with midweek matches. It has at least one match scheduled per day during the pool stage. Match venues have been retained. Kick-off times have been adjusted to more closely resemble those from the Australia-hosted RWC 2003.