Victor Matfield believes that South Africa, New Zealand and France will be the ‘only’ challengers for the 2027 Rugby World Cup title.
The Springboks legend was speaking after Dave Rennie was appointed as All Blacks boss, succeeding Scott Robertson, who was sacked in January.
Robertson departed despite obtaining a 74 per cent win rate, which was better than that of his predecessor, Ian Foster.
However, there was criticism over the All Blacks’ performances under the Crusaders legend, while the players reportedly did not come out to bat for him in the end-of-season review.
Rennie will now take them into the global tournament in Australia and, despite that coaching upheaval, Matfield reckons that New Zealand are among the favourites.
‘Different class’
“I think there’s only three teams that can win the next World Cup and that’s South Africa, New Zealand or France, those three teams will be in a different class,” he said on the Rivals podcast.
“Those three can beat each other on any day. The All Blacks will always be there.”
“I still feel for Scott Robertson, he’s probably the best provincial or club coach ever to come out of New Zealand and it’s a pity he couldn’t pull things together with the All Blacks, but the All Blacks are going to be tough [at the World Cup].”
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Matfield has therefore disregarded England’s chances, who went on a 12-match winning run before successive Six Nations losses recently.
Ireland, Argentina and hosts the Wallabies will also fancy their chances of going far, but the former Springboks record cap holder feels that South Africa, France and New Zealand are clear of the rest.
It will still be a challenge for Rennie to get the All Blacks back to that level, but the ex-second-row believes the new head coach has an advantage over Robertson, having been out of the New Zealand system for almost a decade.
Jump from club to Test level
“I think it’s very difficult to go from being a current provincial or franchise coach into that role as All Blacks coach. That’s something that made it very difficult for Scott Robertson,” Matfield said.
“He had such a strong Crusaders culture that’s worked for him, and then it was difficult because it needed to be an All Blacks culture; it can’t be a Crusaders culture where all the other guys need to adapt.
“With Dave Rennie, he’s been in the system in New Zealand. He’s been away a little bit, so he comes in and is starting something new, ‘this is the All Blacks culture I want’.
“It’s not coming from the Crusaders or the Highlanders or the Hurricanes or the Blues, so I think that helps a little bit as well.”