All Blacks draw Boks
Warriors legend could leave club Fierce rivals will be favoured to reach quarter-finals from a Rugby World Cup group that also includes Italy
The All Blacks have drawn old rivals South Africa in their 2019 Rugby World Cup pool, a meeting coach Steve Hansen will be quietly happy about. In a glittering ceremony in the Japanese city of Kyoto, New Zealand were last night drawn against the Springboks, Italy, Africa 1, and the repechage winner, the latter two teams to be decided through a qualification process by the end of next year.
The crowd gave an audible “ooh” as the All Blacks, the defending champions and top ranked team in the world, were drawn in Pool B alongside the Boks, and Hansen gave a wink. He will be reasonably happy with the draw and the fact his side will face stern challenges from not only the South Africans but also the Italians.
One of the biggest challenges for the All Blacks during the last World Cup in England 18 months ago was that only Argentina was capable of truly testing them in their pool, and the match, at Wembley, was a relatively close affair. Tonga, Namibia and Georgia were the All Blacks’ other opponents.
Hansen's strategy was to confine the All Blacks’ game plan against the lesser teams in order to make it more challenging for his players, and it worked, the defending champions blasting past France in the quarterfinal, edging the Boks in the semis and running away from Australia in the final.
Hansen said on stage afterwards of the clash against the Boks: “Everyone will get excited by it. We know each other pretty well, so we’ll continue to understand each other before we get here [to Japan in 2019] I guess.
“It’s a great opportunity,” he said of the tournament in Japan, the first time it has been held in Asia.
“It’s a special part of the world, a unique culture. Rugby is developing here and they’re probably leading that development in this region.
“Let’s hope the tournament reaches great heights. It’s an exciting place to come to, and we all wish it the best.”
Hansen’s side had to show great physical and mental fortitude to get past South Africa on a wet Twickenham pitch in the 2015 semifinal but have since comfortably had the measure of their opponents in the Rugby Championship.
Coach Heyneke Meyer’s replacement Allister Coetzee has struggled to gel the side and seems caught in two minds as to how he wants to play: with a forward-focused mentality or with an attacking mindset, and unfortunately for him, the All Blacks are vastly superior in both facets.
The All Blacks have never lost a World Cup pool match, and have lost World Cup games to only three nations; Australia (twice), France (twice) and South Africa (twice).
The losses to the Boks came at the 1995 World Cup in the Republic – a tryless final which went to extra time – and the play-off for third and fourth four years later.
Also on stage last night was former All Blacks loose forward Jamie Joseph, the former Highlanders coach now in charge of Japan, who have been drawn in Pool A alongside relatively big guns Ireland and Scotland.
Japan play Ireland in June, with Joseph saying the clashes would give him a good indication of where his team was at.
“Any pool we were put in was going to be a big challenge,” Joseph said. “Now there’s some certainty around it, we can start our planning and really look forward to it.
“We haven’t beaten Ireland or Scotland to date, so we know that the challenge is going to be big.”
Japan, under current England coach Eddie Jones, were the darlings of the last World Cup when fighting back to beat the Springboks in a thriller in Brighton.
Jones’ side were drawn in Pool C with France and Argentina in what probably qualifies as the closest thing to a so-called “Pool of Death”, with only two nations able to qualify for the knockout stages.
England famously failed to make it out of their pool at the last World Cup, falling to Wales and Australia and being pushed by Fiji in the tournament opener.
Pool D saw Australia grouped with Wales and Georgia.