The Wallabies and Hong Kong (China) will kick off the 2027 men’s Rugby World Cup in Perth after the full fixtures were announced.
Dates, venues, kick-off times and ticket prices have all been confirmed for all 52 matches, World Rugby says.
The six-week tournament will feature a record 24 teams with seven consecutive weekends of games to maximise attendance.
With a presale planned for February 18, World Rugby chairman and former Wallabies flanker Dr Brett Robinson says “the wait is over” for fans to start making detailed plans.
“We’ve assembled the most compelling match schedule to date, carefully designed to balance player welfare, fan experience and global reach,” he says.
RWC 2027 Managing Director Chris Stanley explains: “By clustering matches on weekends, communities in our seven host cities will enjoy a festival atmosphere.”
World Rugby reports that demand for tickets is already high with hundreds of thousands of fans already registered for the presale.
A feature of the draw is a Super Sunday round on October 17 when five matches will be played on the same day: Italy v Georgia (Newcastle), Ireland v Uruguay (Docklands, Melbourne), Scotland v Portugal (Brisbane), France v Samoa (Sydney Football Stadium) and South Africa v Romania (Perth).
A soccer-style Round of 16 knockout series will also be held with games in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, quarter-finals will be held in Brisbane and Sydney, and the semi-finals, bronze final and final will be at Homebush, Sydney, on November 13.
WALLABIES SKIPPER SPEAKS
Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson was pleased to have the draw now confirmed.
“To have the schedule confirmed … is hugely exciting and certainly heightens the anticipation for what’s going to be an incredible tournament – not just for players but I’m sure for supporters, especially those in Australia,” he told rugby.com.au.
“To kick off our (Wallabies) campaign against Hong Kong China will be special given it’s their first time in a World Cup and we always feel incredibly well supported in Perth.
“New Zealand a week later in Sydney will obviously be a massive occasion; we’ll get a sense of what’s that going to be like when we play them at Accor Stadium later this year.”
He is also thrilled at the chance to play in Brisbane against Chile “one of the rapidly improving nations in world rugby”.
“It’s incredibly exciting to have the schedule locked in for the Wallabies pool fixtures,” Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh says.
“We look forward to seeing plenty of gold jerseys in 2027.”
OTHER GAMES
Australia, as a tier 2 seed for the Cup, has been drawn in the same pool as New Zealand (tier 1) and will play them in Sydney on October 9.
Defending champions South Africa launch their title defence in Adelaide on October 3 against Italy.
Of the other Southern Hemisphere teams’ opening games: New Zealand plays Chile (Perth) and Tonga plays England (Brisbane) on October 2, Samoa plays Japan (Newcastle) on October 3, Fiji plays Spain (Newcastle) and Argentina plays Canada (Brisbane), both on October 4.
Click here to view the full fixture.
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