Here’s Who Ireland Could Get Drawn With As The RWC 2019 Pool Draw Looms

Not long to go now.

The draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup takes place in Kyoto, Japan on Wednesday, May 10. Ireland will enter the draw in the top band of seeds for the first time since they were based on the World Rugby Rankings.

It’s later than the last draw and was approved by the World Rugby Council back in November 2015 to allow countries a greater opportunity to enhance their global ranking and avoid a repeat of the Wales, England and Australia group of death back in 2015.

So far, there are twelve confirmed teams, by virtue of their finishing in the top three of their respective pools during the previous World Cup. That means that New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, England, France, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Georgia and Japan are guaranteed a spot in the draw.

Here’s how the seeding will look:

Top seeds: New Zealand, England, Australia, Ireland

Second seeds: Scotland, France, South Africa, Wales

Third seeds: Argentina, Japan, Georgia, Italy

This means Ireland are guaranteed to avoid heavyweights New Zealand, England and Australia in their group. That being said you’ve still got the likes of France and South Africa to contend with as second seeds. As for the third seeds Ireland certainly would like to avoid Argentina.

As for the final eight spots there’s a whole host of countries battling to get in such as: Austria, Switzerland, Serbia, Croatia, Malta, Estonia, Denmark, Cyprus, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary in the European qualifiers and Kenya, the Ivory Coast and Cameroon in Africa and Fiji, Samoa and Tonga in Oceania. You’ve also got two Americas sides who will qualify with Canada and USA expected to get through.

These qualifiers will not be decided by the time the draw is made.

Here’s an example of good group for Ireland:

Ireland
Scotland
Georgia
Canada
Uruguay

And a scary one:

Ireland
South Africa
Argentina
Fiji
Samoa

So there you have it. Tune in on May 10th and see who Ireland and everyone else draw in their Rugby World Cup 2019 groups.