Former Scotland, Leinster, and Waratahs head coach Matt Williams has become the latest voice to criticise the draw for the Rugby World Cup 2027, bluntly calling it an administrative cock-up. The draw for the tournament, which will take place in Australia, was made in Sydney on Wednesday.
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And immediately raised questions among fans, coaches, and analysts about fairness, balance. And whether the sport’s governing body is paying attention to previous mistakes. Australia, the host nation, has been drawn in the same group as their fierce trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand. Along with Chile and Hong Kong, China.
In another key pool, two-time defending champions South Africa have been paired with Italy, Georgia, and Romania. The competition has expanded from 20 teams to 24, creating six pools with four teams in each. After the pool stage, the top two sides from every group, along with the four best third-place finishers, will move into a round of 16.
The knockout format continues with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final. However, the main controversy concerns who is likely to play who in the quarter-finals. South Africa and New Zealand are currently ranked as the top two teams in the world.
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Rugby World Cup: Williams Shocked by Repeat of Flawed Draw Structure
They will likely meet each other or Australia far earlier in the tournament than many believe they should. Rugby fans experienced a similar situation at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Four of the top-ranked nations ended up facing each other in the quarter-finals instead of the semi-finals.
In those matches, New Zealand eliminated Ireland, while South Africa defeated hosts France. Many argued at the time that these were matchups worthy of a final, not an early knockout round. Williams said he cannot believe World Rugby has allowed the same situation to happen again.
Speaking on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin, he said World Rugby publicly acknowledged that the 2023 draw was flawed and promised it would not be repeated. This is exactly the situation World Rugby said they wouldn’t repeat, Williams said. Last time, you had New Zealand, France, South Africa, and Ireland as the top four teams on one side of the draw.
And everyone knew those games deserved to be semi-finals. Yet it’s happening again. You’ve got one and two in the world set to meet in a quarter-final. Williams said that while playing New Zealand as an Australian can be exciting, the bigger picture feels wrong. As an Australian, drawing the Kiwis is both a positive and a negative, he explained.
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Rugby World Cup Final: Criticism Grows Over World Rugby Leadership
But if you take a step back, it almost looks like it’s set up so other nations can reach the final. I’m not saying for sure that it’s deliberate, but it’s definitely a question worth asking. Why is the structure repeating something everyone agreed was wrong at the last World Cup?
According to Williams, the draw problem is only one example of World Rugby ignoring issues that are obvious to players, coaches, and supporters. He said there are several areas of the sport that desperately need attention, but keep getting overlooked.
The decisions coming out of World Rugby just make me shake my head, he said. Look at the scrum laws; they still aren’t being properly addressed. Look at substitutions, look at match-day benches, look at the timing of World Cup draws. Everyone can see there are glaring problems, and yet nothing changes.
Devlin then asked Williams why the same mistakes continue happening year after year. Williams said it is difficult to know, because the public rarely gets direct insight into the decision-making process. It’s very hard to answer accurately, he said. Unless you’re in the room with these people and listening to their reasons and rationale, we’re all just guessing.
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