DUBLIN, IRELAND – With speculation on Warren Gatland’s British & Irish Lions squad over, the European Rugby Champions Cup semi-finals concluded, the news of Super Rugby’s impending doom contraction setting in, and international rugby on hiatus until June, a look towards rugby’s biggest event seems appropriate. That’s right… let’s go ahead and take a look at the Pools Draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and do some heavy speculation.
The draw itself will take place on May 10 in Kyoto and will determine just how (seemingly) easy or how difficult each pool can/will play out. So far 12 teams have qualified for Japan 2019 based on their final placing in each of the five pools at the 2015 World Cup (the top three from each pool automatically qualify for the next world cup).
That means that New Zealand, England, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, France, South Africa, Wales, Argentina, Japan, Georgia, and Italy are each guaranteed a spot in Japan each of the 12 qualified teams have been placed in three pots of four based on their world ranking as of March 18, 2017.
The eight remaining positions are awarded through regional qualifying processes in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The regional tournaments are convoluted, so here is a graph that I’ve tried to make to help figure it all out:
One team will be drawn from each pot and placed into a RWC pool. No two teams from the same pot will be placed in the same RWC pool.
Now it’s time for some unrestrained speculation.
Here are my way-too-early predictions for predictions for the regional qualifiers and repêchage winners:
In my opinion, these are the best and worst draws for each of the teams in Pots 1,2 & 3:
New Zealand
Best: Scotland, Georgia, Namibia, Canada
Worst: South Africa, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa
England
Best: Scotland, Italy, USA, Uruguay
Worst: South Africa, Argentina, Romania, Samoa
Australia
Best: Wales, Japan, USA, Canada
Worst: South Africa, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa
Ireland
Best: Scotland, Japan, USA, Canada
Worst: South Africa, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa
Scotland
Best: Ireland, Japan, Namibia, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa
France
Best: England, Georgia, USA, Uruguay
Worst: New Zealand, Argentina, Romania, Tonga
South Africa
Best: Ireland, Georgia, Namibia, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa
Wales:
Best: England, Georgia, USA, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa
Argentina
Best Colin Ireland, Wales, Namibia, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji, Samoa
Japan
Best: Ireland, Scotland, Namibia, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, France, Romania, Samoa
Georgia
Best: Ireland, Scotland, USA, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, South Africa, Romania, Samoa
Italy
Best: Ireland, South Africa, Namibia, Canada
Worst: New Zealand, South Africa, Romania, Samoa
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