RWC 2027 Draw - FIJ reaction (Byrne) - RWC 2027 Draw
Mick Byrne, coach
On Rugby World Cup 2027 as a whole:
“If you get to the World Cup final it’s seven games so it’s a long tournament. You get to play teams that you may not get a chance to play very much, so that’s exciting. We’re going to get to play Argentina, I think the last time we played them was 2003 so they’re the exciting things.
“Being in our backyard, there’ll be a good following, we’ll have a lot of fans. We’re really looking forward to that, that’s an exciting part of having a World Cup in Australia is we know our Fijian families and communities in Australia are very strong.
“We wait now to see where our games are and where that’s going to happen, I think that’s going to be early in the New Year when we find that out (3 February). Then we can work on where we’re going to be based, and then we can connect with our communities when we get over there.”
On the new round of 16 format:
“It’s a great opportunity. The round of 16 means that a lot of other teams that normally wouldn’t progress out of their pools will progress into that round of 16 and give them a taste of the next level of World Cup football.”
On Fiji’s Rugby World Cup 2027 pool:
“Spain and Argentina play a similar style of footy, they like to run, they like to throw the ball around, they like to keep the ball alive. Defensively we need to be on our game when we play those teams.
“Canada, we’ve played a lot recently and they’re getting a really good structure around the way they’re playing. They’ve become very aggressive in their ball carries and their line speed’s improved a lot in defence.
“Having played Spain and Canada a bit in the last couple of years, we’ll keep an eye on them and we’ve got a good benchmark to see where they’re at and what improvements they’ve made.
“Argentina play a great brand of rugby and the Fiji-Argentina game will be one of the highlights of the World Cup.”
On Fiji not being drawn with either Australia or Wales again:
“Fiji have played Australia and Wales over the last couple of World Cups so it’s good to have a mix of other teams, I think that makes it exciting for us.
“The beauty is we’re playing Argentina. Of all the teams there in the top six, there’s Ireland, France and England, we played Ireland last year, and France and England this year, and we’ll play the three of those teams next year.
“Then there’s the All Blacks, South Africa and Argentina and we’ve got one of those teams in our pool so that’s the exciting part, to be able to play another Southern Hemisphere team… we haven’t played [Argentina] since 2003 and it’s an exciting build-up for us.”
