England and Ireland, ranked third and fourth in the world behind South Africa and New Zealand, were placed in Pools F and D respectively.
If all four teams perform in line with their seedings and advance as pool winners, England and Ireland will be on opposite sides of the draw from the two southern hemisphere superpowers and will be unable to meet them until the final.
England and Ireland will also be sidelined until the semi-finals, while the Springboks and All Blacks will be on their way to a quarter-final clash, ensuring that one will lose before the last four.
Should France progress as pool winners – and it is difficult to see Japan, America or Samoa stopping them – Fabien Galthie’s team will look to pick who emerges from that titanic encounter.
Scotland, who have crashed out of the pool stage in three of the last four tournaments, could snatch a path to France in the latter stages.
Gregor Townsend’s side have won only one of their last 16 meetings with Ireland, including losing at the wrong end of a Pool B meeting at France 2023.
If the trend continues in Pool D, but Scotland beat Uruguay and Portugal, they will likely face France – against whom they have a much better record – in the last 16.
The current rankings predict a quarter-final against Fiji.
Even Wales, trapped in dire straits And the structural turmoil behind the scenes is reason to be happy.
Tonga and Zimbabwe are far more friendly Pool F rivals than Georgia’s worst-case scenario, the winners of the Principality Stadium in 2022 and keen to make up a point on a possible spot in the Six Nations, and Samoa, which handed Wales famous World Cup defeats in 1991 and 1999.
The runner-up spot in Pool F will earn a last-16 tie against the second-place team in Pool C between Argentina, Fiji, Spain and Canada.
Now, for the warnings.
At the moment, at the point in the World Cup cycle when they are normally building, South Africa are unmatched. No matter how you split the 24 teams, they will be favorites, and deservedly so.