World Rugby expanded the JWC to 16 teams but the Tier 2 countries were pummelled in Round One. Uruguay lost by -97, USA by -64, Spain by -68. Fiji kept is closer at -30 and Japan were respectable in a -17 loss to NZ in a lightning shortened match. The close matches were England v Ireland, Georgia v Wales, Italy v Scotland. Round Two continues on Thursday, match highlights are on the World Rugby YouTube channel.
Julianne Zussman gets two appointments in the Pacific Four series, she’s the referee for USA v NZ on April 11th in Sacramento and then USA v Australia on April 17th in Kansas City. Emma Gallagher and Kristine Lovatt are the ARs in both of those matches. Cam Russell is TMO for both of those matches as well. Gallagher is also AR in the USA v Canada match on April 24th in Chicago.
World Rugby have announced the schedule for the men’s Rugby World Cup in Australia for 2027. For travelling Canadian fans that means landing in Brisbane for a match on Monday, October 4th 2027 against Argentina, then getting to Adelaide, about a 22 hour drive away, for a Sunday, October 10th match against Fiji, and finally a trip north to Townsville, about a 28 hour drive, for a Saturday, October 16th match against Spain. Alternatively you could pay about $300+ per hop and fly to each destination although it will be interesting to see what prices are like come October 2027. Below find the Rugby Canada media release and 6 graphics provided by World Rugby that lists the schedule by country, date, venue, pool in a variety of formats. If you’re thinking of going as a group or individual, drop us a line and we’ll see if we can connect people from the rugby community.
World Rugby’s latest video on YouTube is named The Greatest Drop Goals of All Time and as is no surprise it’s dominated by Tier 1 highlights, Dan Carter 2015, Zinzan Brooke 1995, Stephen Larkham 1999, Joel Stransky 1995, and at #1 Jonny Wilkinson 2003. NZ, Australia, South Africa and England, not surprising from a panel made up of 3 Aussies.
The sternum level tackle height trial will be extended to the U20 Championship in 2026. The dates haven’t been announced but the 2025 tournament started June 29th and wrapped up July 19th. In 2026 the tournament takes place in Georgia and will be expanded from 12 teams to 16 teams with USA, Fiji, Japan and Uruguay being added.
The pools for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia have been announced and Canada are in Pool C with Argentina, Fiji and Spain. The format is the top 2 teams from each of the 6 pools move to the next round, along with the 4 best 3rd place finishers, for a round of 16. Canada’s chances of making the round of 16 likely come down to winning the match versus Spain and keeping the scoreline reasonable against Argentina and Fiji.
Canada will be part of the 2026 Nations Cup starting in July 2026. The Nations Cup is the Tier 2 equivalent of the Tier 1 Nations Championship. This new structure sets the test matches for the July and November windows except in World Cup or Lions Tour years. In those years there will be some crossover between the Tier 1 and Tier 2 brackets. The Tier 1 Nations Championship will include the Six Nations countries, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales; plus SANZAAR countries Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; plus Japan and Fiji. The Tier 2 Nations Cup will include Canada, Chile, Georgia, Hong Kong China, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tonga, Uruguay, USA, Zimbabwe, Samoa.
It’s a relief from a Canadian perspective to announce the repechage tournament knowing Canada has already qualified for the 2027 World Cup. Canada didn’t even make the repechage tournament for the 2023 World Cup, and they had to win the repechage to make the 2019 World Cup. In that 2019 repechage tournament Canada defeated Germany, Hong Kong and Kenya to advance to the World Cup. This year Canada defeated USA to claim direct entry to the World Cup.
Now that Canada are back in the men’s World Cup there’s more interest in the details. This will be the first World Cup to have 24 teams, 6 pools of 4 teams and a knockout round of 16. The top 2 teams from each pool will advance to the round of 16 plus the 4 best 3rd place finishers. That means that some teams with only 1 win in the pool round may advance to the round of 16. The countries are placed in 4 bands depending on their ranking at draw time, Band 1 will be rankings 1 to 6, Band 2 are ranked 7 to 12, Band 3 are ranked 13 to 18 and Band 4 are ranked 19 to 24. Canada are ranked 24th and will be in Band 4.
World Rugby confirmed what they had hinted at in an earlier media release in April, that the Tier 1 JWC U20 tournament will be expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Today they released more details, the tournament will be hosted by Georgia and that the four extra teams will be Fiji, USA, Japan and Uruguay. Fiji because they were the last team relegated in 2024, and the other three as they finished 2nd to 4th at the 2024 JWRT.