When the Springboks suffered an unexpected defeat to Australia at the start of the Rugby Championship, they fell dramatically to third place in the World Rugby rankings.
However, Rassie Erasmus’ team rebounded brilliantly to reclaim the Rugby Championship, while also ending the tournament with a 2.18 points gap over New Zealand at the top of the rankings.
It’s a particularly important position to maintain as the Springboks now head towards five games on their end-of-year tour – against Japan, France, Italy, Ireland, and Wales – knowing that the draw for the 2027 World Cup will be directly impacted by where teams sit in the world rankings after the November internationals.
LATEST WORLD RUGBY RANKINGS
| Team | Points |
| 1. South Africa | 92.20 |
| 2. New Zealand (↑1) | 90.02 |
| 3. Ireland (↑1) | 89.83 |
| 4. France | 87.82 |
| 5. England | 87.64 |
| 6. Argentina | 84.12 |
| 7. Australia | 82.93 |
| 8, Scotland | 81.57 |
| 9. Fiji | 81.16 |
| 10. Italy | 77.77 |
The 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup draw will take place on Wednesday, 3 December, and the tournament will see as many as 24 teams taking part, and therefore it requires a new format and one big change: a Round of 16 as the first knockout game.
How does the draw work?
Once the 24 teams are confirmed, they are seeded from 1 to 24 based on their World Rugby rankings at the time of the draw on 3 December.
As things stand, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, France, England and Argentina are the top six teams in the rankings. The next six are Australia, Scotland, Fiji, Italy, Georgia and Wales. The top six teams will be grouped in Band 1, while the next six form Band 2, and so on. Each pool will have one team from each of the four bands.
There is only one exception to all this: Australia already know they are in Pool A as they are host nation and will therefore contest the opening game on 1 October 2027. The Wallabies are currently in Band 2, which means a team from Band 1 will be drawn and placed in Pool A, and they would automatically be joined by Australia. However, should Australia climb into the top six by December, they would be automatically be the top-ranked team in Pool A, and a team from Band 2 would be drawn alongside them.
There is one final qualification tournament taking place in Dubai in November, with four teams facing off for the final spot at Rugby World Cup 2027: Namibia, Belgium, Samoa and whoever wins a playoff between Brazil and Paraguay which takes place in October.
