Ireland drawn with South Africa and Scotland in Rugby World Cup pool

Ireland will face reigning champions South Africa and Six Nations rivals Scotland at Rugby World Cup 2023 in France.

Placed in the second band of seeds based on world rankings as of January 1, 2020, Andy Farrell's team will be in Pool B in September 2023 with qualifiers from Asia-Pacific and Europe making up the five-team qualification group.

Coming a month after former South Africa head coach and Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was shown in a documentary describing Irish players as "soft" in a pre-game team talk to his Springbok players ahead of their 2019 semi-final against Wales, a meeting between the champions and Ireland is sure to have some spice added for those with long memories in 2023. 

The last time the nations met was in November 2017 when Ireland were top dogs at Aviva Stadium in a 38-3 win under Erasmus's predecessor Peter de Villiers.

It is another former Munster man, ex-defence coach Jacques Nienaber, who is the Boks' head coach now.

“We are obviously excited about the draw today, and although the Rugby World Cup in France is still almost three years away, it’s good to have an end-goal to work towards,” Nienaber said.

“To be in the same pool as Ireland and Scotland will be a massive challenge, but to win the tournament, you have to be able to beat all the teams and we will be properly tested in the pool phases.

“We saw last year the margin for error – even during the pool stages – at any Rugby World Cup is very small.

“Take for instance our situation where we simply had to win every single pool game after our loss to the All Blacks in Japan, to ensure we qualify for the knockout stages.

“If you look at the countries in the top three bands, I would say each one of those teams is capable of beating another on any given day, proven by a team such as Japan, who have made huge strides in recent years.”

Scotland will be no strangers, with Ireland having beaten them for the second time in 2020 10 days ago in Dublin in the Autumn Nations Cup third-place play-off. The Scots and Irish were in the same pool in Japan 14 months ago when Joe Schmidt's team ran out resounding 27-3 bonus-point winners in their opening game in Yokohama.

Hosts France were the first ball out of the bowls at the draw on Monday morning but there were gasps in the auditorium as renowned chef Guy Savoy drew the name of three-time champions New Zealand alongside Fabien Galthie's team in Pool A with Italy the third seeds in that group.

Wales will be top seeds in Pool C drawn with Australia and Fiji while 2019 runners-up England will play Japan and Argentina in Pool D.

Rugby World Cup draw

Pool A 

New Zealand, France, Italy, Americas 1, Africa 1 

Pool B 

South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Asia / Pacific 1, Europe 2 

Pool C 

Wales, Australia, Fiji, Europe 1, Final Qualifier Winner 

Pool D 

England, Japan, Argentina, Oceania 1, Americas 2