As World Rugby defended the decision to look past Canberra as a host city for the 2027 World Cup, former Wallaby Matt Giteau and respected Brumbies coaching figure Andy Friend have slammed the decision, describing it as “distasteful”, “disgraceful” and a “real slap in the face”.
The last World Cup-winning Wallabies playmaker Stephen Larkham, who steered the Brumbies to their last Super Rugby title in 2004 and overseen their semi-final finishes in the past two years as head coach, described it as a “disappointing” result for the region.
The number of venues was a reduction from the nine used at the 2023 World Cup in France and 11 in 2003 – the last time Australia hosted the tournament, which included a lone fixture in Tasmania and four games in the ACT.
But neither state nor territory will host a fixture in 2027, with Sydney (13 games), Brisbane (10), Melbourne (9), Perth (7), Adelaide (5), Newcastle (4) and Townsville (4) instead preferred for the tournament, which will see 2.5 million tickets sold.
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh, World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin and World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson pose with the Webb Ellis Cup as World Rugby announce the host cities for the 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup at The Theatre Bar on January 30, 2025 in Sydney. (Photo by Brendon Thorne – World Rugby via Getty Images)
Melbourne’s relatively successful result came after an 11th-hour deal was struck between the Victorian Government and World Rugby.
They won’t host a World Cup final, but the MCG and AAMI Park will split fixtures, which include two round of 16 fixtures.
While the MCG was always a venue World Rugby wanted to use given its 100,000 capacity, the decision to award nine matches to the city comes less than a year after they lost its Super Rugby franchise.
Canberra, meanwhile, where the ACT Brumbies – Australian rugby’s most successful Super Rugby side and the only team on this side of the ditch to have made a semi-final since 2019 – are based, failed to be awarded one World Cup fixture.
The decision comes after the Canberra Times revealed on Friday that the ACT Government pitched a $500,000 per-game bid to have matches in Canberra – far less than the $10 million package ACT Minister Andrew Barr spruiked on local radio recently.
Although financial remuneration was vital in cities winning the rights to host World Cup fixtures, recently elected World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson, who captained the Brumbies, pointed to the city’s old stadium as one of the reasons why Canberra missed out.
“I’ve got a few chips on my shoulders, as a lot of Brumbies do, but we haven’t quite got the stadium to be competitive,” the former back-rower said.
“We’ve got a wonderful rugby community, playing at home in Canberra is a wonderful place to play the game, it’s just we don’t have the facilities to compete for the scale of this tournament, which is a disappointment.
“But I have no doubt that there will be people driving down the highway to Stadium Australia, I’ve got no doubt that the Brumbies will fill the team up, and I’ve got no doubt that the coaching and administrative support of the Wallabies will be supported by the Brumbies.”
Canberra have been shut out from the 2027 World Cup. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Robinson added: “As a proud Brumby captain, I [can] tell you they will be a part of it because they’ll be participating and supporting the Wallabies in the on-field performance. I’ve got no doubt.
“The Brumbies was formed all those years ago to strengthen Australian rugby through coaches and players and from a high performance perspective, so it was more about the talent and the confidence and capability, and I have no doubt, as we’ve seen, they’ve been one of the most successful teams in recent years and over the history of Super Rugby and under Steve’s [Larkham] leadership, I’m fully confident that the Wallabies are going to be full of Brumbies.”
Brumbies and Wallabies great Giteau, who played at the 2003 World Cup as a blonde-tipped 21-year-old and later played at his second World Cup final in 2015, was left gobsmacked by his home city being looked over.
“How can Canberra not get one game for RWC 2027??” Giteau responded in a tweet. “This can’t be accurate surely?
“Growth of the game down here is as crucial as it is around the country IMO (in my opinion).
“Most successful super rugby team and we get donuts down this way.”
Friend, who is preparing to lead the Brumbies’ Super Rugby women’s side more than a decade after coaching the men’s team, slammed the decision.
“I think it’s distasteful and disgraceful, and a real slap in the face,” the long-serving coach told The Roar.
“It’s not just disappointing for the Brumbies but Australian rugby.”
The decision appears at odds with World Rugby’s legacy mantle, which the game hangs its hat on.
Indeed, with the Brumbies already struggling to attract crowds despite making four straight Super Rugby semi-finals, the result isn’t likely to help build the game’s vision and values in the region.
What the long-term damage of shutting out one of the four remaining Super Rugby bases out of the tournament remains to be seen, too.
“From our perspective, we’ve got a lot of passionate supporters and it’s disappointing for them not to have that ability to watch a game here in Canberra,” Larkham added.
“It’s probably something I can’t really speculate on more than that except to say that it’s disappointing from our perspective in the rugby community within Australia and … we’d have loved to have had a game to showcase the game at the top level, but we can’t do anything about that now, the only the thing that we can do is making sure that we’re putting really good performances out there for the local fans that love coming to support us.”
