The draw for the 2027 Rugby World Cup has seen the Springboks grouped with Italy, Georgia and Romania in Pool B.
South Africa should be fairly comfortable with this draw, having secured three wins over Italy this year, while they beat Georgia 55-10 in a one-off Test earlier this season as well.
The Springboks have played Romania just twice in their history, the latest of which saw them clinch a 76-0 win in 2023.
What should catch the attention of fans though is the fact that a potential quarter-final could see the Springboks facing New Zealand in a repeat of the 2023 World Cup title decider.
At the global showpiece hosted in Australia, there will be 24 teams participating, and therefore the tournament requires a new format and one big change: a Round of 16 as the first knockout game.
What is the format the Springboks and others will face at the Rugby World Cup?
There will now be six pools with four teams in each. The top two teams from each pool will progress to the Round of 16, while the four best third-place teams will also progress. Those four teams will be determined by competition points firstly, and if that doesn’t separate the sides then points difference and try difference will be the next factors used respectively to determine which teams make it out of the pool stage.
With an extra round of knockouts, does that mean more games?
Instead of 48 matches like we had at the last Men’s Rugby World Cup, there will now be 52 games. But crucially, it does not equate to more games for the players.
With player welfare at the forefront of decisions made around the tournament’s structure, World Rugby has adopted this format to try and ensure maximum jeopardy, drama and excitement for the teams as well as spectators, while not compromising on the health of those who play the game. Five minimum rest days will be observed between matches in Australia.
While there will be more knockout matches, the change from five teams in each pool to four has meant one fewer match for each team in the pool stage. For example, when South Africa won the 2023 Rugby World Cup, they played seven games: four games in the pool stage and a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final.
If they were to reach the final of the 2027 Rugby World Cup, they would still only play seven games: three games in the pool stage, then Round of 16, a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final.
But fans still get four extra matches, and as an added bonus, having an even number of teams in each pool means no team has to sit out a round while the others play each other.
So, despite adding four extra teams, the pool stage is now in fact shorter. While the last Rugby World Cup lasted 50 days in total, the 2027 Rugby World Cup will take place over 43 days.
How will the Round of 16 work?
In previous formats, the quarter-finalists would just be the winners of each pool against the runners-up of another pool. With six pools feeding 16 spots in the first round of the knockouts, that requires some changes. First, have a look at this graphic which shows the road to the final:
The teams that finish top of Pool A, B, C and D will face a third-place team in the Round of 16, while the teams that finish top of Pool E and F will face teams that finished second in their pool. Likewise, some teams that finished second in their pool may face the winner of another pool, while some will face the runners-up.
While on the surface that may seem slightly unfair, that imbalance is addressed in the next round. Let’s take Pool A and Pool E as an example. The team that wins Pool A will face a third-place team in the Round of 16, but in the quarter-finals could potentially meet the winner of Pool B if that team wins their Round of 16 match.
On the other hand, the team that wins Pool E will face a runner-up rather than a third-place team in the Round of 16, but in the quarter-finals would face the winner of a quarter-final between two other runners-up.
So while the winner of Pool A would face a third-ranked team and then potentially a top-ranked team in their games, the winner of Pool E would face second-ranked teams in both games. There’s therefore no advantage or disadvantage to be gained or lost regardless of your team’s ranking at the end of the pool stage, it will all even out in the end.
