World Cup 2023: Former England wing on why Boks' rivals will fall short
SPOTLIGHT: Former England wing Ugo Monye has refused to be taken in by the hype surrounding the No.1 ranked Ireland ahead of the Rugby World Cup, instead naming their pool rivals South Africa as his favourites to lift the Webb Ellis Cup in France in late October.
Now a rugby pundit, the 40-year-old could understandably have kept counsel on Thursday when visiting Dublin’s Lansdowne Road for an appearance at a World Rugby EventsCo function.
After all, the ground had witnessed Ireland clinching the Six Nations Grand Slam just 13 weeks earlier with a win over England and much of the talk since then has been about Andy Farrell’s team going on and winning the World Cup, never mind reaching the semifinals for the first time in tournament history.
The story continues below…
Monye, though, instead referenced a more recent match in Dublin as the compelling evidence as to why Ireland won’t win the World Cup – the Champions Cup final four weeks ago where Leinster surrendered a 17-point lead and lost to the visiting La Rochelle.
“Ireland won’t win the World Cup,” he said straight out when asked for his France 2023 prediction.
“They just won’t. If you saw Leinster against La Rochelle here a month ago, Ireland’s biggest weakness is how they deal with power games. Rugby 20 years ago, 50 years ago, the one common denominator which you absolutely need in a physical game is power.
“When they play against South Africa, play against France, play against New Zealand, they struggle, hence why they have never made it beyond the quarterfinals in the World Cup. They are the No.1 team in the world and with Andy Farrell, who is incredible, they learn lessons.
“In 2018 they were world No.1, Joe Schmidt won World Coach of the Year, Johnny Sexton got Player of the Year, they went to Japan in 2019 and got bombed out in the quarterfinals. How can they use that as fuel? What lessons can they learn to be able to convert it?
“If you look at the side of the draw they are on, it is really difficult. I’d be surprised [if they won]. For me, the favourites to win the World Cup are South Africa. Because of the displaced nature of our [northern and southern] seasons, we are not really talking about the Southern Hemisphere teams because we are obsessed with the rugby that we have seen which has been European.
“It’s great but the Rugby Championship will kick off and we will go, ‘Oh sh*t, Argentina are really good at rugby. Australia are [too]. Do you remember New Zealand? They’re class. South Africa, they are world champs, they are unbelievable’.
“Then you have got France. Over the last five years, France have connected all the dots. They have brought league into union, bringing in Shaun Edwards, and they have got previous in this. You mention 2007, they know how to party.
“The football World Cup in 1998 when they beamed up [Zinedine] Zidane’s face on the Arc de Triomphe, you had a million people in the Champs Elysees – they know how to do this.
“The biggest propaganda tool any country has is sport and France have the spotlight on them and they want to be massively successful.
“Whether they can shoulder that pressure I don’t know but Ireland, I don’t think they will win it. South Africa are favourites.”
@Rugbypass
