World Rugby defends Australia-Hong Kong World Cup opener as fixtures released

SYDNEY – World Rugby has defended the decision to launch the 2027 World Cup with Australia playing Hong Kong after receiving criticism from fans, given the major mismatch between the hosts and the Asian debutants.

Seventh-ranked Australia kick off the tournament against world No. 23 Hong Kong in Perth on Oct 1, crushing fans’ hopes of a Wallabies clash with New Zealand, who are in the same Pool A.

The hosts traditionally launch the showpiece, with France taking on the All Blacks in the 2023 edition.

Fans in Australia and New Zealand slammed the scheduling on social media, while Perth-based media said local Wallabies fans had been short-changed.

World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson acknowledged the Australia-Hong Kong matchup was polarising but said the governing body’s role was to grow the game.

“Clearly people will have different opinions and the sides will have different opinions, but we’ve landed where we’ve landed,” he told reporters on Feb 3.

“For me, the pools are this great opportunity where clearly we are going to have teams that are dominating, but we also have teams that are aspiring. That’s our role as World Rugby, to build and grow our great global game.”

Robinson spoke after World Rugby released the fixtures for the showpiece.

The expanded 24-team World Cup features 52 matches across 19 match days in seven cities – with a shortened pool stage but a new knockout round of 16.

Brisbane and Sydney will host back-to-back quarter-finals on Oct 30-31 while both the semi-finals and the Nov 13 final are at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

South Africa begin their bid for a third successive title, and a fifth overall, against Italy on Oct 3 before playing Georgia and Romania.

England, who won the World Cup the last time it was staged in Australia in 2003, start against Tonga on Oct 2 and also face Zimbabwe and Wales.

Three-time winners New Zealand start against Chile and then have the stand-out fixture of the pool stage against Australia on Oct 9.

Australia captain Harry Wilson had championed starting against the All Blacks at the draw in December, saying “it doesn’t get much better than that”.

At a press event for the fixtures launch in Sydney on Feb 3, he had to row back a bit.

“I went off a little bit too early there,” he said. “It’s obviously great to verse (play) Hong Kong in the first match and then have a week to build to what is going to be another massive match against New Zealand.”

Ireland, who have never got past the quarter-finals, start against Portugal on Oct 4 before playing Scotland on Oct 10, while France start against the United States.

The pool phase will conclude in a historic Super Sunday on Oct 17, featuring five matches in a day, a first in tournament history.

Meanwhile, Eddie Jones said that the schedule gives smaller teams a “fair” chance of upsetting the sport’s big boys as he plots another shock with Japan.

Crucially, the fixture plan gives all sides roughly a week between matches.

Jones was in charge when Japan stunned South Africa at the 2015 World Cup, but then had only four days to prepare for their next game against Scotland, which they went on to lose.

The Australian is in his second spell as Japan coach and said the 2027 schedule was “pretty equitable” for all teams.

“We’ve got six days between every game, which is a fair preparation period,” said Jones.

“I remember in 2015 we beat South Africa and we were on the bus the next day to prepare to play Scotland – that’s hard going.

“Now I think it’s quite equitable, so I think they’ve done a good job.”

Japan reached the quarter-finals for the first time as World Cup hosts in 2019, but failed to get past the pool stage in 2023 in France.

They will start their 2027 campaign against Samoa before facing France and the United States. REUTERS, AFP