Gregor Townsend reflects on 'exciting' 2027 Rugby World Cup draw as he aims for career-first Scotland feat
Scotland will face Ireland, Uruguay and Portugal at the quadrennial tournament in just under two years time.
As Gregor Townsend discovers Scotland’s 2027 Rugby World Cup opponents, one nation in particular stood out.
The 58-year old has been in charge of the National Team for eight years but has never beaten Ireland in 11 attempts. Two of which came at the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, when the Scots failed to progress to the knockout stages. With a new format this time around, they will go into the games against Uruguay and Portugal as clear favourites. The 2027 edition will include 24 teams instead of the normal 20, in six groups of four. The top two teams will qualify for the knockout stage, while the four best-placed third place teams will also progress.
It will be the fifth time Townsend has been involved in a World Cup either as a coach or a player, however it will also be his last, as his contract runs out at the end of the tournament. After an ‘exciting’ draw, the veteran Coach spoke to Scottish Rugby about his expectations in the build-up to Australia.
Townsend excited for a ‘familiar opponent’
“I’ve got mixed emotions because you get excited about the draw taking place, then you look at potential opponents and you go ‘right, I can’t get wait to get stuck in’ but then you remember it’s two years away! But it does bring it down to reality that the next two years is an exciting build-up to a fantastic tournament.
“We’ve met them [Ireland] a few times, but the Pool Stages are bit different this year to last time. Second place gets through and so do four out of six third places and there’s only four teams in each. So last time when we had Ireland they were the second seeds, we were the third and South Africa were first.
“So it’s different from last time and it’s a familiar opponent who have beaten us in the last two World Cups and also in the Six Nations, so we know how tough an opposition they’re going to be, but at least it’s one we know very well.”
Group minnows not to be overlooked
“We’ve played a lot of teams over the past few years and Uruguay was the last game on last year’s summer tour and Portugal showed in the last World Cup what a quality side they are. The Nations that come into the World Cup without having a Six Nations or a Rugby Championship really up their game as it’s what they focus on for years. So we’re prepared for the best versions of Uruguay and Portugal and they’ll be tough matches.
“The draw brings a few things into focus, definitely in terms of what we’re going to do in the camp. If it had fallen another way we might not have played some warm up games. But we feel like we’re going to have a really good preparation with some of the nations we’ve been speaking to and then the next stage will be February when we find out where we’ll be playing.”