The 2023 Rugby World Cup in France opens this week with four big favorites.
Those four teams sit atop the World Rugby rankings: No.
But they are clustered in two of the tournament’s four pools, A and B, and, under the World Cup format, the winner of one plays the runner-up of the other.
If the teams finished the group stage according to their ranking, New Zealand would play Ireland and France would play South Africa in the first knockout matches.
This happened because the draw was determined in December 2020 and is based in part on how each team finished at the 2019 World Cup.
Locations:
France, Ireland, Africa, Zealand, New Zealand