Ireland’s Dream Draw is Still Eerily Familiar

There’s still 24 months to go, but all 24 qualified teams for Rugby World Cup 2027 now know their standing.

For Andy Farrell and Ireland, the engine that almost could in 2023; it might be a dream draw. But they said that in 2019 too.

Scotland. Uruguay. Portugal.

A debut match up with the Uruguayans, hammered Portugal in the summer, and consistently have Scotland’s number. 

Round of 16 vs a third place team. Quarter final v Argentina (probably). Oh, there’s the catch… The old foes themselves, again in a potential knockout game. No bueno.

Don’t fear Scotland

We will come back to Argentina later, the old foes on the global spotlight; but the showdown with Scotland will be a pool decider, like 2019 promised to be.

As we head into the 2026 Six Nations, the sometimes brave, sometimes meagre Scots have not turned over their Celtic cousins since 2017, including two losses in the Rugby World Cup. In that run, the Irish winning margin has only been seven or less on three occasions. 

Gregor Townsend, who will lead his nation into rugby’s premier tournament for the third time as head coach, is sure to be displeased, but Andy Farrell is bound to be cheerful.

That being said, neither head coach will be celebrating the Christmas break with the job satisfaction of previous years. Ireland, despite still being #5 in the World Rankings, appears to be an ageing and fading force. As for Scotland, their losses to New Zealand and Argentina failed to shake off the doubters.

Both teams need to reset and hit a new level, they have 24 months to do so. But when an unknown referee blows a shrill blast of his whistle when these two meet for the first time in the southern hemisphere, history and the eight years prior becomes moot. 

It’s about winning, and Ireland cannot afford complacency. Otherwise the prize is France. 

Minnos = Rotation… surely?

Portugal and Uruguay offer the filler fixtures in this pool, with both sides unlikely to replicate their exploits of prior tournaments. Unlike 2023, there will be pressure on Farrell to rotate here, which he didn’t do against Tonga and Romania.

Ireland’s achilles heel across Farrell’s tenure has been the ability to mix and match, and you would hope he has the likes of Jude Postlethwaite, Tommy O’Brien, Ben Murphy and Edwin Edogbo have been given proper opportunities in the interim, to be ready come the Autumn of 2027.

Argentinian Rivalry Renewed

Survive the pool stages, and then the knockouts are stacked against Ireland. Not the draw this time, but solely the weight of years and years of agony and despair. 

In 1999, Lens was the venue as Argentina, led by the mercurial Gonzalo Quesada, knocked Ireland out before the quarter-final. Ireland got revenge in 2003, but that hubris was short lived.

Come 2007, with qualification from the pool on the line Parc de Princes, Felipe Contepomi got one over on his Leinster teammates, and Munster nemeses. Fast forward another eight years to 2015, where a jubilant Irish crowd and team were shot down by injuries and speed in Cardiff. 

Now, in what will be 12 years since that fateful day, Ireland are on a crash course to play the one team who they should beat, but rarely can when it matters most. 

The View from Camp

Naturally, Andy Farrell is more focused on the pool than the potential knockout permutations. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, he cut the figure of an excited man. Relieved perhaps given their rate of change over the past 24 months.

“Scotland have performed well in the last couple of tournaments, so that's a great fixture”, Farrell said. 

“We know each other well and will continue to do so in the coming years. But Uruguay and Portugal are a little different. We've played Portugal once and I've actually tried to play against them a few times, so we've followed their journey. Uruguay is a little different. All in all, I was super excited. I got goosebumps standing up, as in it's exciting, you know. So that's the way it should be.”

Having come up short last time out, the objective is simple.

Win.

"We all have the ambition to win the World Cup, otherwise what's the point? I want to ensure that everyone else feels the same.”

The next 24 months is your canvas Mr. Farrell, now let’s see if Ireland can go one further this time around.