Rugby World Cup: Sir Bill Beaumont speaks out on controversy surrounding pool draw

What is the controversy?

The Rugby World Cup 2023 kicks off in just under a month’s time, however the tournanment was rooted in controversy from the start due to the way the pools were drawn.

The pools were announced on 14 December 2020, just under three years before the start of the World Cup in France, and at the time, World Rugby were widely criticised for holding it then, with so much time to go until the tournament began.

The way things have played out since means the current top five nations in the rankings are all in either Pool A or B, where as usually the top teams would be split more evenly across all the pools.

The lopsided draw now means that two of the current top five teams – France, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and Scotland – will not make it into the semi-finals.

What has Sir Beaumont now said?

Speaking to The Breakdown, Bill, who lives in Lytham St Annes, explained: “The reason why the pool draws were made earlier was because of the surety of the host cities and knowing where teams were going, which is very important.

“What we will be doing is looking to have the pool draw as late as possible so that you get more consistency around the balance in a pool.

“There’s always going to be one pool which is tougher than the others.

“When we go to Australia, we will be looking at how late we can make the pool draw.”