Rugby, World Cup draw already made: South Africa, Georgia and Romania for Italy
24 teams in six groups: this will be reduced to 16 with the first two runners-up in each group and the four best third-placed teams advancing to the round of 16
The Rugby World Cup, which will take place in Australia from 1 October to 13 November 2027, is still almost two years away. Somewhat inexplicably, however, not only has the qualifying phase - which promoted 12 national teams, in addition to the other 12 (including Italy) with access guaranteed by the results of the 2023 World Cup - already been concluded, but today in Sydney the draw was made for the placement of the 24 teams in the six planned groups, which will be reduced to 16 with the first two classified in each group and the four best thirds going through to the round of 16.
So let's look at Italy's group, which did not receive the best treatment from fate, quite the contrary. The teams were divided into four groups, according to their placement in the international ranking, and the Azzurri, tenth, were in the second group. Well, in group B they found themselves with the best in the world, South Africa, and the best in the third bracket, that is, Georgia, as well as with Romania, less insidious than they once were.
The 'draws' of the other rounds have opened up a few important 'derbies' (New Zealand-Australia and Ireland-Scotland, in the two pools that appear to be more secure for the first two places, and England-Wales). Looking at all the teams to face, among the big teams it is perhaps Argentina that has the easiest task in the first phase, facing Fiji, Spain and Canada. After Italy-Georgia, another uncertain challenge to define the second and third places could be Fiji-Spain, followed by Japan-USA and Wales-Tonga, if in the meantime the British Dragons do not recover at least a little.
In the press conference, the Azzurri coach Gonzalo Quesada partly dodged a question about the paradoxical convenience of placing among the best thirds rather than the second best (according to the predictions, in the first case we would have Ireland or Scotland, in the other England), saying that match after match there will be no calculations, he recalled the rivalry that has now been established between Italy and Georgia, emphasising the value of the opponents and all the extra stimuli deriving from this draw, and concluded with a joke: "It is a relief to be sure that no one, between now and the start of the World Cup, will be able to tell us that we were lucky.
The SIX GIRONS*
