LONDON, Dec 3 : Steve Borthwick is probably the last man on earth who would dare to say he was pleased with how the Rugby World Cup draw panned out and though the England coach played his usual straight bat when discussing it, he must have been beaming inside.
England were placed with Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe in Wednesday’s draw, which, if the games in two years go anywhere close to current form, would put them into a Round of 16 game against a third-placed finisher.
Their probable quarter-final opponents would then be the loser of the Australia v New Zealand pool match, with a probable semi-final against Argentina or Ireland the reward for the winners.
It means that England are highly unlikely to face world number one and double-defending champions South Africa, who they lost to by a point in the 2023 semi-finals and in the final of the 2019 tournament, until the final.
It is a starkly different scenario than in the last few tournaments. In 2023 England went to Marseille ranked below Argentina but beat them in their opening game en route to topping the pool to earn a quarter-final against Fiji.
In 2019 they had Argentina again, and France, in their group, which they topped again by beating the Pumas and sharing the points with France after the game was cancelled due to a typhoon.
Four years earlier England suffered their only pool-stage exit, losing to Wales and Australia on home soil, while in 2011 they had to again beat the Pumas, and Scotland, to top their pool.
NEW FORMAT
The new format of the 2027 tournament has removed the concept of such a “group of death” and England can prepare for it safe in the knowledge that even if they were to be shocked by Wales again, they would still go through.
Even two years out, that looks an unlikely proposition – Wales have lost 18 of their last 20 games – and Borthwick can focus his efforts on a potentially huge quarter-final, not that he was about to admit to such thoughts when speaking to journalists on Wednesday.
“People try to plan out the permutations but who knows what’s going to happen come the time of the tournament,” he said. “You can start thinking about all kinds of different aspects and you miss what’s immediately in front of you.
“It’s nice to know who we are playing and it feels like the road to the World Cup has really started. We get the dates and precise fixtures at the start of February. We’ll have some provisional (warm up) fixtures in place. “It comes down to getting the detail right.
“We know that World Cup games are hugely competitive, the margins in World Cups have really tightened up and what we see in this tournament is a new dimension with the round of 16.
“So, from my point of view, we’ll concentrate on making sure we’re the best prepared team we possibly can be going into the tournament and we will continue to build and improve throughout.”
