Don’t forget to turn out the lights
After 7 weeks and 1 day of competition, the Rugby World Cup 2023, hosted by France, has come to a close. It ended, in Saturday’s Final between South Africa and New Zealand with neither a bang nor a whimper. It was a riveting game which could have gone either way but was won by four penalties rather than thrilling tries. It was won by the slimmest of margins by a Springboks team that had survived the two previous knockout rounds by the same single point, against comparably tough opposition, the French hosts in the QF and a resurgent England in the Semis.
There has been plenty of comment about Sam Cane’s red card and Siya Kolisi’s yellow for a similar offense but that situation, which arguably affected the outcome of the match (despite New Zealand’s heroic, 14-man effort) is a stark reflection of the debate going on within the game today. How fitting, perhaps, that the biggest match in a 4-year span should be affected by the most important component in the game today - player safety.
But in many ways it was a fitting climax to a terrific tournament which, at its start, had at least 4 teams who had the potential and/or the form to go all the way and World Rugby and the hosts should feel proud of such a successful event. According to World Rugby a cumulative 2.4 million people attended the 48 matches on display. The global broadcast audience was calculated to be 800 million: both of these statistics were new records for this relatively young quadrennial event (it started in 1987). The average attendance across all 9 venues all over France was over 50,000 and tickets for the vast majority of games were tough to find, especially for the “bigger” teams.
In addition to spectator “firsts” at least 2 of the Tier 2 countries could feel happy on the journey home: Chile entered the competition for the 1st time having edged out the USA in the qualifiers by a South Africa-esque margin; and Portugal won their 1st match in the World Cup beating World #10 and eventual quarter finalist, Fiji. Fiji too, are challenging the top nations and may even be disappointed that they didn’t go further, losing to England in the quarters.
So the Springboks won, again (they beat in England in the 2019 Final in Tokyo) and look very comfortable with the way they turn up for the biggest of games. They also have the most World Cup triumphs, 4, edging out the All Blacks with whom they were tied at 3, until the 28th of October.
So what’s next?
Fans of the Rugby World Cup will turn their attention to 2027 and the tournament in Australia but there is much to enjoy before then, including a British and Irish Lions tour Down Under in 2025 and the normal calendar of club and international rugby that entertains us every year.
Players for European and South African clubs will go straight back to work as the season is already underway for the English Premiership, France’s Top 14 and the multi-country United Rugby Championship. One hopes that some of them will get a brief break after the rigors of the World Cup but hopefuls for Six Nations caps can’t rest too long - the competition starts on February 2.
Super Rugby in the Southern hemisphere (clubs from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands) does not start until February 22nd so many of those players will get a well-earned rest, having played the World Cup right at the end of regular season.
While the French and URC leagues look sound, the same cannot be said for the English Premiership which lost 3 clubs last season due to financial woes. There will be intense scrutiny on the remaining 10 clubs this season, some of whom are rumored to be struggling. After a strong showing in the World Cup, English rugby looks good. Some of the young players who were given a chance to shine at RWC represent a strong future for English rugby - hopefully, renewed attention being paid to the health of the club system will guarantee them a sound platform from which to excel.
The Six Nations 2024 will have some additional spice coming after the World Cup and the disappointing showing of the Northern hemisphere nations, two of whom were favorites to bring home the trophy. Ireland and France will be keen to put some silverware in the cabinet and England will feel refreshed from their better-than-expected finish. Scotland, who failed to get into the knockout stage also will be out for revenge.
RWC’s future hosts
Australia are hosts of the 2027 Rugby World Cup and they will be more than anxious to turn the page on their worst ever performance in 2023. This was the first time the Wallabies had failed to make the knockout stage so the 2-time RWC Champions have a lot to do to impress local fans, increasingly distracted by the strength of Aussie Rules Football and Rugby League.
Similarly, USA Rugby must now take a hard look at the system for domestic rugby development with its early-stage pro game and widely dispersed club format. 2031 (2033 for the Women’s World Cup) is around the corner and a system that promotes top talent alongside college players through robust national competition is essential if America wants to perform well. This will be only the second time a World Cup has been held outside of the Tier 1 nations (Japan in 2019 was the first) and a good showing, both in terms of player participation/quality plus strong local spectator interest will be key to the long-term health of the game.