Israel Dagg claims Scott Robertson could ‘raise the white flag’ at 2027 World Cup amid brutal All Blacks draw
All Blacks taking on the Wallabies, and New Zealand great Israel Dagg.
Scott Robertson could throw the All Blacks’ game against the Wallabies in order to avoid facing the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.
That is a suggestion from former New Zealand back three star Israel Dagg, who believes that some fans and pundits might just be thinking that.
While Dagg himself is against it, there may be those out there who would accept losing to Australia just so they could be on the other side of the draw.
Try and avoid the Springboks?
“You’re going into a Rugby World Cup and you’re Razor, you’re thinking, ‘are we going to raise the white flag? Maybe we can rest our top XV for the first match to avoid the Saffas‘,” he said on Sport Nation’s Scotty and Izzy show.
“Now you don’t want to avoid the Saffas, you’ve got to beat them, you’ve got to play them so you never want to go to that situation.
“I’m not thinking that but how many people out there are thinking that?”
While head coach Robertson is already in the process of building for the next World Cup by bringing in younger players and trying to find his best 23, Dagg claims the tournament itself offers an opportunity to do just that.
The 37-year-old pointed to the 2011 success, which he was a part of, and how Graham Henry developed the side.
“You’ve got to go through this World Cup, you’ve got to build momentum, you’ve got to still look for your best XV,” he said.
“I go to my experience in 2011. We played Tonga first up and there was a lot of experimenting but, from that, it actually brought you a lot of big decisions that you had to make.
“A lot of ideas and new combinations that could potentially go in it. Would Razor go into that Rugby World Cup thinking along the same lines? Or would you go in and play your best team from the outset and see what happens?”
World Cup expansion
World Rugby’s decision to expand the competition means that they have gone from four pools of five teams to six groups of four.
As a result, it has kept most of the top nations apart with New Zealand v Australia and Ireland v Scotland the biggest games in the round robin phase.
By 2027, England’s clash with Wales could be another potential thriller but, at the moment, Steve Tandy’s outfit will be more worried by Tonga.
“When you look at these pools, is there a pool you get excited about? Is there a pool where you think potentially a big name, a big team could miss out?” Dagg added.
“When you look at Pool F, you’ve got England, Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe. England, they’re a certainty, but outside of that, it’s anyone’s guess.
“Could Tonga do the unthinkable?”
