Dave Wessels reveals the ‘biggest challenge’ facing Australian rugby in build-up to 2027 Rugby World Cup

SA Rugby’s general manager for high performance rugby, Dave Wessels, feels it is imperative that Australia sort out their player depth ahead of the next Rugby World Cup which they will host in 2027.

The Wallabies, who lifted the famous Webb Ellis Cup as champions in 1991 and 1999, have found the going tough in the international arena in recent years.

Under the guidance of veteran coach Eddie Jones, they had a disastrous 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign as they were knocked out in the pool stages for the first time in the global showpiece’s history.

Jones subsequently resigned from his position after less than a year in charge before taking over Japan’s coaching reins.

Meanwhile, ex-Ireland boss Joe Schmidt was appointed as the Wallabies‘ new head coach and they have certainly improved since he took charge of the team, although they are not the finished article yet.

Poor Test record in 2025

Their 2025 international campaign saw them being competitive in all their internationals, but they only managed to win four out of 14 Tests during the year.

Wessels is familiar with the Australian rugby landscape as he had stints as the head coach of the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels between 2016 and 2021 and feels it’s important that the next World Cup hosts improve their player depth if they want to be competitive at the global showpiece in 2027.

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“I think (for) Australian rugby, and the Wallabies, the biggest challenge Australian rugby themselves have is just a lack of player depth at the moment,” he told Planet Rugby.

“At the start of the season, when they’ve got their best players firing and they can field their kind of strongest (matchday) 23, (then) they can beat anybody.

Player depth is a real issue for Australia

“But what you’ve probably seen with them now on the back end of the end-of-year tour is that after a long season with injuries and things like that, they maybe don’t have the same depth as some of the other tier one nations.

“So that’s something that they’re going to have to address in the build-up to the next World Cup.”

With the Springboks currently dominating the international scene, Wessels expects them to be amongst the favourites at the next World Cup, although he feels it’s still too early to predict a winner for the tournament, which he expects to be a great success.

“There will be great crowds in Australia and I think the hype around the World Cup will do the game a lot of good there,” he added.

“It’s going be a fantastic World Cup and I think the Springboks are obviously shaping again to be one of the favourites but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and then.”

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