England have been handed a golden opportunity to win their first Rugby World Cup for 24 years.
Steve Borthwick’s men will face Wales, arguably the weakest of the second seed teams, in the pool stage and are projected to avoid New Zealand, France and double defending champions South Africa until the final.
If all the top seeds win their group, England will fall in the same side of the draw as Argentina and Ireland, with the latter a potential semi-final opponent in an all Six Nations clash.
But they will most likely have to come through Australia first, with the hosts slated to clash with the 2003 champions in a blockbuster quarter-final.
Rugby World Cup 2027 draw in full
Pool A: New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Hong Kong China Pool B: South Africa, Italy, Georgia, Romania Pool C: Argentina, Fiji, Spain, Canada Pool D: Ireland, Scotland, Uruguay, Portugal Pool E: France, Japan, USA, Samoa Pool F: England, Wales, Tonga, ZimbabweEngland moving in the right direction
The first game of the Rugby World Cup is still 667 days away, and England will play the best part of 20 Test matches between now and then, but already the team that will play their opener is starting to take faint shape.
Captain Maro Itoje will turn 33 during the World Cup and will be well past 100 caps for his country, but will still be leading the team, most expect.
And the talismanic trio of Marcus Smith, Fin Smith and George Ford, who will be 34, is unlikely to be broken up – but which of them will start in which jersey remains a topic of heated debate.
But Borthwick’s boys are starting to find their best rugby, sweeping the autumn internationals including a 33-19 win over the All Blacks at Twickenham to take their run of consecutive wins to 11.
Group-stage opponents Wales meanwhile are at one of their lowest ebbs, beaten 73-0 by South Africa last weekend to take their recent record to 20 defeats in their last 21 Tests.
Opportunity Ireland?
Sam Prendergast (right) will hope to be Ireland’s leading light at No 10 (Photo: Reuters)Ireland’s curse at this competition is one of the sport’s most enduring tropes, with the boys in green having lost in the quarter-finals of the last four editions of the men’s Rugby World Cup.
Twice it has been Argentina to inflict such pain on them, and it is possible that the Pumas could do so again: if both teams win their groups as expected, they could meet in the last eight, barring any second-round upsets.
The potential spanner in those works could be Scotland, who face a tall order if they are to return to the semi-finals for the first time since 1991. They find themselves alongside Ireland in the pool stages, and whichever team fails to top Group D will most likely have to play France in the last 16.
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