As a plethora of rugby royalty descends on Sydney to recognise the one-year milestone until the 2027 Rugby World Cup kicks off, several Wallaby greats believe the current national side and the trajectory of interest for the event will galvanise Australian fans.
Early signs for the World Cup have been impressive, with 1.3 million of the 2.5 million tickets already sold, the remaining tickets being made available for purchase today.
Watch every second of the 2027 Rugby World Cup live and on demand via Stan Sport.
Over a quarter of a million fans from 164 countries are set to converge on Australia for six weeks next year, which is set to inject AU$1.3 billion into the Australian economy - making the event the biggest Australia has hosted since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Speaking to the media today, Managing Director of Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 Chris Stanley believes the event has the opportunity to kickstart a surge of interest in rugby, both in Australia and globally.
“I think the Rugby World Cup, it's about sport but it's also about entertainment,” Stanley said.
“It's the opportunity to come to a truly global event. We want fans, we want the rugby abbeys, we want people who just like going to great big events, or the festival seekers or families.
“That's why we've got our pricing the way we did, to make it accessible for all people to attend. It really is going to be something special. There are big matches but some of the smaller matches, I always say every Rugby World Cup match is special.”
“I think it's very exciting to be one year away from the start of the World Cup,” echoed Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh.
“As we've seen in previous World Cups, the runway is short, but it's also a lot of test matches between now and then.
Judging by the progress that the team has made over the last period of time and just how close the top 10 to 12 teams are in the world at the moment, we're very optimistic about the country getting behind the team and the team responding accordingly.
“It's going to be an exciting time for rugby with this team and this group, anything is possible.”
The Wallabies have been the talk of the town since their 42-38 victory over the Springboks, and Waugh believes that with the growth in the side, casual sports fans will increasingly look to rugby as a must-watch event.
“I think there's amazing support for our national teams, and to see the support behind the Wallabies, behind our teams in gold and just the movement [is fantastic],” said Waugh.
“Most pleasingly for us is the way the players are carrying themselves and really embracing the Australian public.
“One of our biggest focuses has been connection and connecting the community to our professional teams, and we're starting to really see that support coming through.
“With one year to go and so much more rugby to be played here in Australia and abroad, we want to keep growing that supporter base and that real love and passion for the gold jersey.
“This is a game that we're not focused on just rugby supporters; we want all Australians getting behind rugby in Australia, being the Wallabies, being the Wallaroos, being our sevens programs.
“I'm a sports lover, I follow a whole lot of different sports, and you don't need to be wedded to one sport. We want all Australians right behind the Wallabies, and we've got a group that understands that and wants to deliver that for all Australians.”
The growth of the national side has also not gone unnoticed by Wallaby great Tim Horan, and with the event falling in October and November, he expects the warm Australian spring to play into the hands of the Southern Hemisphere sides.
“I think any team in the top ten can win the Rugby World Cup now,” Horan said.
“Certainly the Wallabies, the way that they've got some momentum with Les [Kiss], and I think what Les is doing is the style, the brand of rugby that the Wallabies are tracking pretty well.
“It's going to be hot. When you look at November 13th [for the final], how hot that's going to be, and the quarterfinals and semis leading into that, it'll be tough for them.
“That's the opportunity of having it down under, teams like New Zealand and South Africa are used to that sort of heat.
“The 2003 semi-final, I think, was like 38 degrees [Celsius], Australia beating New Zealand, so I don't think the players will worry if they're at the back end of the competition playing in a semi, they won't care how hot it is.”
An event like this has given Horan, who was part of both the 1991 and 1999 World Cup-winning sides, a chance to reflect on his own time playing at such an event - and he believes such an event will be just the ticket to elevate the sport to new heights nationally.
“I was quite young at 21 years of age in the 1991 World Cup, where you didn't understand the enormity of playing in a World Cup, let alone winning it and coming back to Australia and understanding what it means,” Horan said.
“It's pretty special. To play in it, I think the enormity of playing in it now, players will be seeing what happened in Japan in 2019, what happened in France was incredible in 2023, and it'll be just as big if not bigger here in a year's time.
“We just need to get it bigger here in Australia and back to where it was back in 2003, and I think we can do that through the World Cup.
“Not just through the Wallabies playing, it's through people watching Japan v Romania or these sides, all these other games around the seven other cities in Australia.”
