The draw for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia is two weeks away. The format of the competition has changed slightly to include more teams and a round of 16.
We thought it would be fun to have AI predict how the World Cup in 2027 would play out. Starting with the draw right through to the finals.
With Samoa gaining the final spot in the competition and the November internationals having just one match left, the bands that seed teams looks relatively set. Teams tha have qualified are grouped together based on their World Rugby ranking. If there are no major changes after this coming weekend’s matches, the bands wil look like this:
There are six pools with four teams each, meaning that a team from each band will be in a pool. Ai respionded by grouping together the teams into six pools.
This is what it predicted.
Using the road to the finals as set out by World Rugby, we asked AI to predict all the matches within these pools and the round of 16.
According to World Rugby it may seem slightly unfair but that the imbalance is addressed in the next round. Let’s take Pool A and Pool E as an example. The team that wins Pool A will face a third-place team in the Round of 16, but in the quarter-finals could potentially meet the winner of Pool B if that team wins their Round of 16 match.
On the other hand, the team that wins Pool E will face a runner-up rather than a third-place team in the Round of 16, but in the quarter-finals would face the winner of a quarter-final between two other runners-up. So while the winner of Pool A would face a third-ranked team and then potentially a top-ranked team in their games, the winner of Pool E would face second-ranked teams in both games. There’s therefore no advantage or disadvantage to be gained or lost regardless of a team’s ranking at the end of the pool stage.
AI predicted that the round of 16 would be contested by the following teams.
- Argentina
- Japan
- Ireland
- Samoa
- Wales
- Scotland
- England
- Fiji
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Georgia
- South Africa
- Uruguay
- France
- Tonga
- Italy
Here is what AI predicted the knockout stages of the World Cup would look like. Predicting a historic fifth World Cup for South Africa. Also predicting that the Boks win it for a record third time on a row.
It would be a historic moment if the Boks could pull off a ‘three peat’ but the World Cup is still more than a year away. Key players could get injured, teams can dip in form. The draw would look different than what AI has predicted. We all know rugby is played on a patch of grass between four white lines. Not in a computer generating code, the emotion, passion, drive and tactics will determine the winners 2027 as it has since 1987.
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