Durban – This year will be the first time in history that the All Blacks enter a World Cup as dark horses, but Springbok enforcer Eben Etzebeth says only a fool will discount the New Zealanders.
The Kiwis have been favoured to win every World Cup since they hosted the first event in 1987 and while they have won three of the nine World Cups that have been played, they have flattered to deceive in six of them.
That has been because the All Blacks are masters of peaking at the wrong time. They tend to blow everyone away between World Cups only to corpse on the big stage.
This year, nobody can accuse them of having peaked too early and they will go to France on the back of their most tumultuous period in the modern era, with their coach Ian Foster only just hanging onto his job because of a series of defeats in 2022.
“Those people that don’t put the All Blacks in the conversation for this World Cup don’t know much about rugby,” Etzebeth said at a function to launch the Springboks’ association with cell phone company OPPO.
“The All Blacks will always be there. They are one of the toughest teams at a World Cup and they’ve won it three times for a reason.”
Etzebeth said France 2023 will be the most open World Cup ever.
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“I think there are about seven or eight teams that are really going to be competitive at the World Cup,” he said.
“Wales are not doing that well but they’re always good at the World Cup. England will come back, Australia will be good, and Argentina is always a tough team, so it’s going to be difficult.
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“We’ve got a tough pool with Scotland and Ireland in it and you must finish at least second to make the quarter-finals. Getting through the pool is going to be a tough ask but we’re looking forward to seeing how we go.
“Obviously teams like France and Ireland are drawing a lot of attention, and rightly so, but we’ll be backing ourselves for what is going to be an interesting World Cup,” Etzebeth added. “The openness is good for rugby.”
IOL Sport
