The lowdown on Ireland's 2027 Rugby World Cup pool stage opponents
Ireland defeated Portugal 106-7 in Lisbon during the summer. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Andy Farrell’s Ireland were drawn in Pool D of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Wednesday’s draw in Sydney. Scotland make for familiar foes but Uruguay, and to an extent Portugal, will bring a touch of the unknown to the early weeks of the tournament in two years’ time.
The Scots have only topped their World Cup pool once and that was back in 1991 when they went on to reach the semi-final. Gregor Townsend’s side have actually failed to make it past the pool stages at the last two attempts.
Both of those failures, of course, were caused in no small part by Ireland who dealt with them comfortably in Yokohama in 2019 and again in Saint-Denis two years ago. The Irish have won the last 11 meetings, since a Scottish success in 2017.
Scotland have played 46 times across 10 tournament appearances, winning 26, losing 19 and drawing their first ever game, against France in the inaugural World Cup in New Zealand back in 1987.
The current team is populated with a range of elite talent, most notably out-half Finn Russell. They had 13 players involved in this summer’s British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, three of them featuring in all three Tests against the Wallabies.
Townsend has been coach of this ‘golden generation’ since 2017 but all that promise has not been equalled by the consistency needed to actually win anything. The man himself said recently that fans expect too much of them against the top nations.
This is the fourth successive qualification for the 2025 Sudamericano champions. They have never faced Ireland before but Scotland were one of their opponents on their maiden appearance back in 1999.
They gave a brilliant account of themselves in 2023, losing by just 15 points to hosts France, giving Italy a competitive game, beating Namibia by ten points and then finding the All Blacks one bridge too far in their last game.
Head coach Rodolfo Ambrosio will go to a World Cup with a third different team having played for Italy in 1987 and served as attack coach with Chile in 2023 and he has been working with 2027 in mind for some time.
Ambrosio has been busy integrating some new blood into the Los Teros lineup since last year but they will once again bring a side that features players playing for Uruguayan clubs, in the USA and with a sprinkling of French experience.
Everyone’s second favourite team at the last World Cup, Portugal gave more than respectable performances in defeats to Wales and Australia, drew with Georgia and claimed a famous win against Fiji in Pool C.
Not bad on what was only the country’s second ever appearance, and one that was all the better for the fact that they played some brilliant, eye-catching rugby along the way under French legend Patrice Lagisquet.
Former Munster backs coach Simon Mannix has taken over since and any hope that Portugal had built on those solid foundations was ended when his side lost 106-7 to Ireland in Lisbon in a farce of a Test match last summer.
Mannix spoke afterwards about the systemic issues crippling the game there but Ireland could have driven a bus through his midfield in the first minute so there was micro as well as macro to cause concern then.
They finished fourth in this year’s Rugby Europe Championship, losing out to Spain in the semi-final and Romania in the third-place playoff.
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