Matt Williams hits out at 2027 Rugby World Cup draw as an ‘administrative cock-up’
Former Scotland coach Matt Williams (inset) and the Webb Ellis Cup.
Former Scotland, Leinster and Waratahs head coach Matt Williams is the latest critic of the 2027 Rugby World Cup draw as he described it as an “administrative cock-up”.
The global showpiece is set to be held in Australia, and its draw took place on Wednesday in Sydney with the hosts drawn in the same pool as trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand, along with Chile and Hong Kong China.
Meanwhile, 2019 and 2023 champions South Africa were drawn alongside Italy, Georgia and Romania.
The tournament has been expanded from 20 participating countries to 24, which has resulted in six pools consisting of four teams.
The top two teams from each pool, plus the four best third-placed teams, will qualify for the round of 16, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final following.
The big talking point from the draw is that the Springboks are likely to meet either the All Blacks or Wallabies in the competition’s quarter-finals, with South Africa and New Zealand currently ranked as the top two sides in World Rugby’s official rankings.
There was unhappiness amongst rugby fans during the 2023 Rugby World Cup when the then-top four-ranked nations faced off in the quarter-finals, with the All Blacks ultimately beating Ireland and the Springboks getting the better of hosts France.
And Williams was left baffled that a similar scenario is set to happen again at the 2027 global tournament in Australia.
“This is the exact scenario that World Rugby said they wouldn’t repeat after the last World Cup where you had New Zealand, France, South Africa, and Ireland, the top four teams in the world, on one side of the draw, so that they all met in quarter-finals, where really everyone in the world knew that that should have been the semi-finals,” he told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“And yet, you have teams one and two in the world who just produced two scintillating games (earlier this year in the Rugby Championship).
‘They’re destined to be in a quarter’
“I know the New Zealanders didn’t think the second Test in Wellington was a scintillating game, but they were both going for scintillating rugby. And they’re destined to be in a quarter.
“As an Australian, drawing the Kiwis as well is sort of a plus and a negative.
“But if you look at the big picture, it’s almost (like) it’s contrived to get other people to the final. Now, I don’t know that it’s contrived, but it’s certainly a question you’ve got to ask.
“Like, why is this structure a repeat of what we said we wouldn’t do, and everyone around the world said was wrong, from the last World Cup?”
Williams said the controversy over the World Cup draw is just one of several issues in the game which World Rugby are not looking at improving.
“The machinations that come out of World Rugby, I just shake my head at,” he added.
“We look at our scrum laws that are just not being addressed. We look at so much, our bench, the players that make our bench from 16 to 23, the World Cup draws, all of these things. And everyone can just see a glaring problem.
“It’s our TMOs, what we’re doing with that.”
Devlin then asked Williams why the issue regarding the Rugby World Cup draw keep on happening and he replied: “It’s such a difficult one to answer with any accuracy, because unless you’re in the room with these people, unless you’re physically there and you’re listening to their reasons and their rationale, we’re all just surmising.
“We’ve got this extra pool with extra teams and we’ve got to question the quality of the extra teams.
“Is Hong Kong China really going to produce a quality game against the big sides? All these issues and the draw, we’re just not seeing the evidence of the positive actions that it requires.
“And once again, we’re going to see teams one and two end up at a quarter-final, we think. So it’s incredibly frustrating for me and I’m sure for all the rugby people where we’re not seeing these major issues addressed.
“And if they are getting addressed, the outcomes that we’re witnessing are not really acceptable outcomes. New Zealand and South Africa meeting in a quarter-final when you’re ranked one and two is not an acceptable outcome.”
Despite winning the last two Rugby World Cups, the Springboks lost pool matches against the All Blacks (in 2019) and Ireland (in 2023) en route to lifting the Webb Ellis Cup and Devlin pointed out that it could work in Australia’s or New Zealand’s favour to lose their pool game as it could give then make things easier for them to win the World Cup.
‘Who remembers pool games?’
“That’s all that matters is your name on the William Webb Ellis trophy,” said Williams. “Who remembers pool games? I often bring this up and talk about pool games from the past. The teams that won up until those World Cups (2019 and 2023) never lost games.
“And if it did, it put you in such a disadvantageous position. You couldn’t get there. You couldn’t dig your way out of that position. Whereas at this World Cup, that first game, the opening of the World Cup, which I imagine will be at Sydney at the Olympic Stadium (between the Wallabies and All Blacks), the loser of that could well be in a better position in the quarter-finals than the winner.
“And again, surely these scenarios must have been played out before any of this went. The what-if questions that you would ask: ‘Okay, if this happens, what happens here? What happens here?’
“And again, it just seems that it hasn’t been asked.
“And we all make mistakes and it’s easy to sit in the cheap seats here and criticise. But after the absolute raucous disapproval of the draw and how it was conducted at the last World Cup, you would think coming into the next World Cup with the promises they made that these issues would not be there, that there would be no advantage to lose the opening pool game of your World Cup.
“So again, instead of talking about the quality of the athletes, the quality of the players, the greatness of a World Cup in Australia with all the fantastic venues and so on, here we are talking about an administrative… Well, and you’ve got to say, if it’s not an administrative cock-up, what is it? It’s certainly not a draw that other sports would be proud of.
“It’s certainly not one that I think we really expected.”
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