Nick Mallett slams ‘scandalous’ World Cup draw for Springboks
· The South African
In the lead up to the draw for the 2027 World Cup, it was expected that a team like the Springboks would benefit from being the No 1-ranked side leading up to the draw.
Rankings were touted as holding the key to how the teams would end up being pooled at the World Cup, but it didn’t prove to be quite so simple.
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The Springboks were drawn alongside Italy, Georgia and Romania in the pool stage of the expanded 24-team World Cup for 2027, and at face value, that may seem like a favourable draw,
However, it does put them on a path to face the All Blacks in the quarter-finals.
South Africa would be expected to finish top of Pool B comfortably, and then would face a third-place finisher from either Pool C, E or F in the Round of 16, which should prove to be a relatively ‘easy’ encounter.
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The All Blacks – although they have been drawn in Pool A with Australia – are favourites to finish top of Pool A. They’d also expect to progress past the third best finisher from Pool D, E or F in the first knockout round.
Where it gets interesting is that this pairing of winners from the Round of 16 are then set to meet in the quarter-finals. This puts the Springboks and All Blacks on a collision course for a quarter-final meeting.
Speaking on SuperSport’s Final Whistle presents Side Entry, former Springbok coach Nick Mallett said it was shocking that one the two leading teams in World Rugby – and the finalists from the last World Cup – could end up eliminated at the quarter-final stage.
“It’s scandalous; it’s not a pity,” Mallett said.
His views were echoed by former Springbok great Victor Matfield: “It’s the two best teams in the world; they should get to a final if they win all their games,” he commented.