19 November 2020

2021 Rugby World Cup draw: LIVE

The 2021 Rugby World Cup draw takes place this evening to see which pools each country will be placed in for the tournament.

The draw will start at 6.30pm. The countries have been split into bands according to world rankings so the four pools have a distribution of rankings within them.

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Welcome to the Rugby World Cup 2021 draw!

In just over an hour the Rugby World Cup draw will start to determine which countries will be in which pools.

The countries have been separated into bands depending on world ranking to spread teams evenly across the pools.

The bands have been released so stay tuned for updates!

Which countries are in which bands?

There are four bands that will make up the three pools at the tournament starting next September.

Band one consists of England, New Zealand and Canada.

Band two has France, Australia and the USA.

Band three consists of Wales, Europe 1 and South Africa.

Band four has Asia 1, Fiji and the final qualification winner in it.

The Europe and Asia qualification events have not yet taken place due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Who will be appearing in the draw?

As the host country is New Zealand their Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be making an appearance as well as All Blacks legend Dan Carter.

In addition former Black Ferns players Dr Farah Palmer and Melodie Robinson will feature

Who are the current holders?

The current Rugby World Cup holders are next year’s hosts New Zealand.

They beat England 41-32 back in 2017 so all eyes will be on them

Under an hour to go!

There’s less than an hour to go until we find out who will play who in the pool stages in New Zealand next year!

What teams are involved?

Rugby World Cup have put a video together to show the skill of all the teams involved in the draw!

England are ready to go!

The Red Roses are ready to see who they will be playing at the tournament.

England won the World Cup back in 2014 and narrowly missed out in 2017, can they win it again this year?

15 minutes until coverage begins

WE have to wait just 15 more minutes for the draw coverage to start!

There will be 15 minutes of introduction to the draw and then it will begin.

Countdown to the draw begins!

Rugby World Cup’s live stream has started counting down!

Just over eight minutes to go!

Coverage begins

Hosts Ugo Monye and Elma Smit are on!

Just 15 minutes until the draw begins.

NewsChain will keep you up to date on any news shared in this opening to the draw.

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