'More important now': Scotland told to make mockery of World Cup seedings

Wednesday’s draw paired the second-seeded Scots and top seeds Irish together in Pool D along with Uruguay and Portugal.

It will be the third time in a row that Scotland and Ireland have faced each other at the World Cup, with Townsend’s side losing both previous encounters.

The national coach accepts his side will have to perform a lot better than they did in Yokohama in 2019 and Paris in 2023 when they were well beaten by the Irish and eliminated at the pool stage.

The 2027 tournament will be played in a new format and has been expanded from 20 teams to 24, with the competing nations drawn into six groups of four. The top two from each pool along with the four best third-placed sides will proceed to the last 16, an extra knockout round.

If Scotland win Pool D they will meet one of the third-placed teams in the round of 16. If they finish as runners-up they will face the Pool E winners, who are likely to be France.

Asked about the prospect of facing Fabien Galthie’s side, Townsend said: “We obviously want to make sure that we don't go as seedings go and we get out first. But yeah, I think if that was the way it worked out, then we know France. France are a team we play regularly, we'll have played them twice before then [in the Six Nations], just like Ireland.

“There's a lot of teams capable of beating each other in world rugby right now, we've seen that over the last six to 12 months. A lot of people are saying it's the best ever Springbok team, or they’re the best ever team in the world, but the Springboks lost two games this year as well, to New Zealand and Australia.

“So teams have been able to beat each other, and we saw that in November too.”

‘We know we have to be better’

One team Scotland haven’t been able to beat is Ireland. The sides have met 11 times during Townsend’s eight years as head coach and the Irish have won on every occasion. The World Cup defeats of 2019 and 2023 were particularly dispiriting, with the Scots well beaten on both occasions.

“We know we have to be better than we were in the last two World Cups against Ireland in particular,” said Townsend.

“And really, apart from maybe two games in the last four or five we’ve played Ireland, the last game in Dublin was very good, the year before at Murrayfield was good. But on other occasions it's not been good enough, so we know we'd have to play a lot better against them. And we have two opportunities prior to the World Cup as well to go up against them.”

Townsend said beating Ireland at least once in the next two Six Nations would be an important milestone for his side ahead of the tournament in Australia which will kick off on October 1, 2027.

“We have two occasions, one in Dublin, one at Murrayfield, before the World Cup,” said Townsend. “The goal every year is to try and beat Ireland – and the other teams in the Six Nations – but it’s even more important now.

“It would help massively if we got on the right side of the results for a change. We know how tough it’ll be.

“Dublin in the last game of the [2026 Six Nations] Championship will be a very difficult game, but we played really well last time we were out there [in 2024] and we’ll be doing all we can to win that game.

“It’ll be more difficult in the World Cup if we haven’t managed to beat Ireland in the next two seasons.”