Filling in the gaps in the draw for the 2019 World Cup

There are a few holes in the draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. James Harrington has done his best to fill them.

There you have it – the draw for the 2019 World Cup in Japan is complete.

At least, most of it. Eight teams have yet to qualify. And the last vacant slot in Pool B won’t be filled until November 2018, following a four-team repechage competition.

However, to offer a hint of how the pools may look two years and four months from now, teams from each of those ongoing qualifying tournaments are listed in brackets, selected from their respective tournaments according to current World Rugby rankings.

So, this is how the pools could look in 2019, and what fans could look forward to in each of the four pools:

Pool A – The Party Pool

Teams: Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Europe 1 (Romania), Play-off winner (Samoa)

If you’re going to Japan 2019 and want to have a good time, this is the pool to follow. The on-field entertainment will be pretty good, but the craic in and around the grounds will be off the scale.

The most serious rugby-related issue for those sides looking to qualify for the knockout phase will be avoiding New Zealand in the quarter-finals. As the world champions don’t do group-phase tactics beyond win all their games, that’s relatively simple. Whoever finishes second in Pool A will face an All Blacklash in the last eight. Of course, whoever tops Pool A and avoids New Zealand can expect to face South Africa, who must have improved by September 2019, surely.

At this stage, everyone expects two of Ireland, Scotland and hosts Japan to qualify. But two difficult sides could fill those vacant slots.

Pool B – The Foregone Conclusion Pool

Teams: New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Africa 1 (Namibia), Repechage winner (Spain)

Much has been made of the fact that Japan 2019 will be the first time that New Zealand and South Africa have ever met in the pool phase of a World Cup. But, let’s be honest, it’s not as if they never meet.

Beyond the Rugby Championship sides, the only question is: which side will finish third and qualify for the 2023 World Cup in Ireland, or France, or even South Africa? This far out from the tournament, Italy have to be very early favourites.

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Pool C – The Official Pool of Death™

Teams: England, France, Argentina, Americas 1 (USA), Oceania 2 (Tonga)

England coach Eddie Jones doesn’t like the ‘Pool of Death’ cliche – “Nobody’s going to die,” he said when the question was put to him soon after the draw was made. Which is all the more reason to use it, even though it is a cliche. Besides, the consensus of opinion is that Pool C was not the World Cup draw that England, Argentina or France were looking for.

No wonder. Three tier one sides with knockout-phase ambitions, and just two quarter-final slots up for grabs equals disappointment for one of them. England know all about that, after 2015. Not that it gets much easier later on in the competition. Whoever wins this pool is on a semi-final collision course with New Zealand.

That’s before considering the two unfilled slots. Oceania 2, in particular, could cause a few problems.

Pool D – The Pool of Wince

Teams: Australia, Wales, Georgia, Oceania 1 (Fiji), Americas 2 (Uruguay)

Oceania 1 could make this pool tougher than it would otherwise be for tier one sides Australia and Wales. Fiji are currently the highest-ranked of the Pacific Island sides, but there’s not much between them, Samoa (who, we’ve got as Play-off winners in a shootout match between the third-placed side from Oceania and the second-ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship – based on World Rugby’s current rankings) and Tonga. Any one of those three could give the early knockout-phase favourites a serious run for their money.

After the Pools

The knockout phase of the 2019 World Cup looks like this:

Quarter-finals

QF1: Winners Pool B v runners up Pool A

QF2: Winners Pool C v runners up Pool D

QF3: Winners Pool D v runners up Pool C

QF4: Winners Pool A v runners up Pool B

Semi Finals

SF1: Winner QF1 v Winner QF2

SF2: Winner QF3 v Winner QF4

We’ll leave you to work out the permutations that end with your preferred country lifting the Webb Ellis trophy.

And, in case you want to know, here’s how those eight empty slots will be filled.

Europe 1 qualifier: The highest-ranked team from the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding already qualified Georgia)

Oceania 1 and 2 qualifiers: Two teams qualify from a Pacific Nations Cup tournament played on a home-and-away basis during June 2016 and 2017

Play-off qualifier: The third-placed team from the Pacific Nations Cup play a two-leg home-and-away play-off against the second-ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding already qualified Georgia). The winner on aggregate will join Pool A at the World Cup in Japan.

Americas 1 and 2 qualifiers: Canada and USA will play home-and-away, with the winner on aggregate qualifying for Japan 2019. The loser will then play home-and-away against the top-ranked South American team (excluding Argentina) with the winner on aggregate qualifying. The loser of this match qualifies for a four-team repechage tournament.

Africa 1 qualifier: The winner of the Rugby Africa Championship will qualify. The runner-up qualifies for the repechage tournament

Asia/Oceania play-off for repechage place: The highest-ranked team from the Asia Rugby Championship (excluding Japan) will play home-and-away against the winner of the Oceania Cup, with the winner on aggregate qualifying for the repechage tournament

Repechage qualifier: The repechage tournament will feature four teams playing in a round-robin format with the winners qualifying for that Pool B slot at the 2019 World Cup.

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