World Cup newswire: 24 teams in 2027, All Blacks edge, Boks embarrassment
PRIDE: A South Africa fan showing his colours in Marseille for the game against Tonga.
World Rugby to reject plate competition for emerging nations at World Cups World Rugby is set to reject the idea of emerging nations competing in a ‘Plate’ competition running alongside the main event at future World Cups.
Instead, the 2027 tournament in Australia will be expanded to 24 teams with organisers keen not to erect “a glass ceiling” between the top sides and those with fewer playing and financial resources.
With Portugal and Uruguay, among others, having provided significant entertainment in France, there had been calls for lower-ranked sides with no hope of knockout stage qualification to be given fresh incentive in the form of a parallel event involving teams of more similar ability. It is understood, however, the proposed concept has insufficient support within World Rugby, which is also wary of the extra cost implications.
Instead, it will be formally agreed before the end of this tournament that 24 teams will be involved in Australia, opening the way for Spain, the United States, Canada and, potentially, either Hong Kong, China or Brazil to feature in four years’ time. Six pools of four would also make it simpler for squads to play and train in half a dozen regional centres, reducing the amount of travel that has caused significant logistical headaches in France.
****
New Zealand head coach Ian Foster has given an insight into how the coach of a team that has just run in 14 tries against a Six Nations team motivates his players for Thursday’s game against Uruguay – who have never come close to beating tier one opposition.
The All Blacks take on the 17th-ranked Uruguayans on the same ground where they laid waste to Italy 96-17 last Friday..
"You can't motivate a team falsely because it shows and it shows in performance, so you've got to get real about it," Foster explained. "So what are the facts? We've got so much to achieve ourselves. That's a fact. We're not in a quarter-final yet, so we've got to make sure we do that. At the end of the day, we've just got to meet our own standards," Foster added. "It's about us living up to the things that we say we want to do, and we've just got to make sure we do them. We're at our best when we are on edge."
****
South Africa’s Daily Maverick has reported that the country’s key sporting bodies has less than 10 days to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code or the Springboks and cricket’s Proteas will find themselves unable to fly the country’s flag at their respective World Cups.
Next week’s Rugby World Cup 2023 quarterfinal might see the Springboks playing under a neutral flag and unable to sing the national anthem. That’s because the South African government has not met a deadline to amend the outdated drug-free sport act to comply with the latest World Anti-Doping Code (Wada) that came into force in 2021, DM’s Craig Ray reports.
Wada’s revised anti-doping code came into effect on 1 January 2021 and all member countries are expected to comply. To date, more than 700 sporting bodies and federations have accepted the new code.
On September 23, Wada issued a statement confirming that South Africa had not updated its anti-doping code and if it does not comply fully by October 13, the first steps of the consequences of non-compliance will start. And one of those consequences is not being allowed to participate under a national flag.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
