World Cup landscape about to be revealed

Who will the All Blacks be pooled with in the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France? Which will be the pool of death? Will the All Blacks draw neighbours Australia?

Practically all will be revealed tomorrow when the draw takes place in the Palais Brongniart in Paris.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the draw, which will split the 20 participating teams into four pools for the 10th edition of the tournament.

Twelve teams have automatically qualified for the tournament by virtue of a top-three finish in the pool stage of last year’s tournament in Japan.

The remaining eight teams will come through the regional qualification process, and will be allocated into bands four and five for the draw.

Due to Covid-19’s impact on the international playing calendar, the 12 qualified teams will be seeded based on the world rankings as of January 2020, and placed into three bands of four teams.

That means the All Blacks, while currently ranked third, are the second seed behind world champions South Africa. They are joined by England (third) and Wales (fourth) in band one, meaning they can’t be pooled together.

Ireland, Australia, France and Japan make up band two, while Scotland, Argentina, Italy and Fiji are in band three.

France, ranked seventh in the world in January, will be the first team drawn because they are the host nation.

All slots from band five will then be drawn, then band four, and so on, with band one being drawn last.

The match schedule, including dates, kickoff times and venues, will be announced in February.

The first Rugby World Cup to be solely held in France will kick off on September 8, 2023, and wrap up on October 21.

The All Blacks were grouped with South Africa, Italy, Namibia and Canada in 2019.