How to Plan Your Rugby World Cup 2027 Trip
The Webb Ellis Cup in Australia, with the World Cup set begin in less than 12 months time
©World Rugby
A year out is the sweet spot for planning a Rugby World Cup trip.
Close enough to book. Far enough away that everything still looks perfect on paper.
The tournament runs from 1 October to 13 November 2027, across Australia. It is the first with 24 teams and 52 matches. That is a lot of rugby, spread across a very large country.
My wife Karen and I are going. Four matches are booked, the rest of the plan is taking shape, and along the way we have learned a few things worth passing on.
Here is how we have gone about it.
1. Let the fixtures set the frame
Start with the matches. Everything else hangs off them.
Pick the games you most want to see, get tickets, and only then build the trip around those dates. Flights and hotels can be juggled. A sold-out match cannot.
There is still time. Tickets left over from the Visa Priority Sale went on general sale from 1 October 2026, through the official ticketing site. Hospitality and travel packages that include tickets are another route.
Be realistic about demand. Australia v New Zealand, England v Wales, Ireland v Scotland and the knockouts were among the most sought-after games in the pre-sale.
The good news for budgets: organisers priced a million tickets at A$100 or less.
2. Look beyond your own team
Our four tickets are England v Tonga in Brisbane, Fiji v Spain and Uruguay v Portugal in Newcastle, and England v Wales in Sydney.
Only half of that is an England tour. That is deliberate.
The expanded tournament is full of matches that will never headline a Saturday night. Spain, Portugal and Uruguay are three of the most interesting stories in the game below the top tier.
These are the fixtures where a World Cup is discovered rather than simply watched.
They are also easier to get into. Less demand, often cheaper, and frequently in smaller venues with a proper atmosphere.
Mix the big occasions with the small ones. You will come home with better stories.
3. Arrive early, and think about a stopover
The flight from the UK is brutal. Do not land the day before your first match is our advice.
We are breaking the journey with two nights in Tokyo, then flying on to Brisbane to land on 30 September. England's opener is on Saturday 2 October. That gives us two days to recover before the rugby begins.
One rule for the stopover: don't try to "do" the city. A temple, a garden, some good food, the lights at night. Treat it as decompression, not a second holiday crammed into 48 hours.
4. Plan the gaps, not just the games
The pool stage leaves days, sometimes a week, between matches you care about. Those gaps are the trip.
After Fiji v Spain, we fly to Hamilton Island for four nights in the Whitsundays. The Great Barrier Reef, Whitehaven Beach, and at least one day with nothing planned at all. Later come a few days on the coast at Terrigal and two nights in the Hunter Valley.
A few principles have shaped all of it:
- Fewer moves. Stay three or four nights where you can. One-night stops eat a day each in packing and transfers.
- Base yourself near clusters. Newcastle, Terrigal, the Hunter and Sydney all sit close together. We see two matches in Newcastle from one coastal base.
- Leave things out. Spain play Argentina in Melbourne on Sunday 10 October. We could go. We will watch it on television from Terrigal instead.
That last one is the hardest. It is also the one that will make the trip.
5. Make rules for temptation, before it arrives
There will always be one more match; for us it is Australia v New Zealand in Sydney on Saturday 9 October. The hosts against the All Blacks at a home World Cup. We have no tickets; couldn't find any other than hospitality at A$1850 per head.
So we wrote ourselves a rule. If tickets appear and the flight from Hamilton Island fits comfortably, we go. If it means cutting the island short, the reef wins.
Decide your rules now, while you are calm. It is much harder at midnight with a resale site open.
6. Decide how the knockouts fit
Knockout tickets are a gamble on who qualifies. That can be part of the fun.
We plan to be at the Round of 16 at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne on Sunday 24 October, at 4.45pm Australian time. It will be the Pool D winner against one of the best third-placed sides from Pools B, E or F. We have no idea who we will see. No allegiance required.
You also don't have to stay to the end. The final is on 13 November in Sydney. We fly home on 25 October and will watch it at a party in Rufford with family and friends. A month is plenty for most of us. Six weeks is a lot of hotel rooms.
Staying with friends helps too. Our last week is in Melbourne with people we know: rugby on the television, and a very different pace.
Our itinerary, as it stands
For anyone who likes to see the whole thing laid out, here is ours.
Late September: Tokyo - Two-night stopover
30 Sep-3 Oct: Brisbane - England v Tonga, Sat 2 Oct
Mon 4 Oct: Newcastle - Fiji v Spain
5-9 Oct: Hamilton Island. Four nights, no rugby
Sat 9 Oct: Sydney - Australia v New Zealand, only if it fits
10-13 Oct: Terrigal Spain v Argentina on TV, Uruguay v Portugal in Newcastle, Mon 11 Oct. A free Tuesday follows...
Mid-October: Hunter Valley. Two nights, wineries
Sat 16 Oct: Sydney - England v Wales
17-25 Oct: Melbourne. With friends. Round of 16 - Sun 24 Oct
13 Nov: Rufford. Final party at home
Over to you
The rugby gives you the dates. You decide the pace.
Some days will mean 80,000 people in a stadium. Others, if you plan it right, will mean nothing at all.
So here is the question worth asking before you book anything. Is your World Cup about seeing as much rugby as possible, or about the trip the rugby makes possible?
Let us know your plans.
