RWC 2027 Draw - POR reaction (Mannix) - RWC 2027 Draw
Simon Mannix, head coach
Reaction to being drawn in Pool D with Ireland, Scotland and Uruguay:
"Firstly, we're very happy to qualify for the World Cup. It’s two World Cups in a row now so that’s exciting. We know our pool is going to be very tough. We’ve played all these teams in the last 15 months, and the results have not been good. There’s a difference between where we are now, though, and where we can get to, and I’m excited about the challenge. We're not there just to go as tourists; we want to perform, and we want to perform well."
On playing Uruguay:
"We played them very recently, we didn’t perform our best but we were still very competitive. We will play them again next year, so we’ll be able to judge ourselves at that point when it comes to talking about our goals for the World Cup.
On going to his first Rugby World Cup:
"Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I would have loved to have drawn the All Blacks, obviously, from a personal viewpoint (former All Black). I know there were players who would love it if we'd drawn France, but we've also got Irishmen in our staff, so they'll be delighted as well. It's so exciting for us, and I think for any coach or player to be involved in a national team and particularly a Rugby World Cup right down the southern hemisphere, it's an experience these guys will never forget, and they'll probably never experience again in their lives and touring Australia and seeing all that it has to offer."
On the new format of the Rugby World Cup:
"I think everybody who found themselves in Pots 3 and 4 this morning was trying to work out what’s the best way to qualify. My answer to that one is to perform at our very best. I think having a final 16 is an exciting one; the playing field looks to be levelled a lot more. In previous World Cups, there has been a little bit of criticism that smaller nations weren't given the same preparation or recovery time."
On Scotland as an opponent:
"I think Scotland are extremely well-organised, extremely well-coached, very disciplined. They’ll be ready to go, and I know they’ve had criticism levelled at them lately, so I have no doubt they’ll be extremely well prepared. There’ll be no underestimating anyone in our pool."
On how he looks to adapt to each team’s playing style, including Ireland:
"Let’s just hope we can keep up with Ireland this time round, cause we couldn’t keep up with them in July. These are teams you’ve just got massive respect for, the coaching groups in all of those countries. Uruguay will be a lot more physical, a lot more confrontational. They're (Uruguay) certainly very well organised and they have a lot of access to their players, which allows them to obviously spend a lot of time together, and when they came to play us here in November they certainly looked like a team that had played a lot of rugby together. So we've got to overcome those difficulties and those challenges, and we've just got to perform. We know Ireland’s pedigree as the number four team in the world, and Scotland at number nine."
Whether it's time to start preparing for the World Cup with a stricter number of players?
"The exciting thing for me is the amount of young talent that we’re developing in Portugal, which even makes you look to 2031. We’re developing a group now which I believe will make us very competitive in our pool.
"To give evidence, I just have to look at the performance of our under 20 team in the European Championships, who've won it two years in a row with polished performances. This is something we're very proud of that we've been able to unearth young players who don't really play a lot of club rugby, and here in Portugal when they get an opportunity in the 'Lusitanos' jersey, they play extremely well."
