North-Riding rugby ref identifies his favourites at World Cup
Kobus Smit says if he had to name a fifth team capable of winning the World Cup, it would be Scotland. But this is highly unlikely.
South Africa, New Zealand, France and Ireland. These are the teams many rugby pundits have tipped to win the Rugby World Cup, and if North-Riding resident Kobus Smit is honest about it, he has to agree that any of these four can lift the trophy.
However, he said there is almost no chance of any other team winning it all.
Smit has been a rugby referee for 34 years and for the last 13 of those, he has refereed at South African National Golden Oldies Referee Association (Sangora) matches.
“I will enjoy watching those four teams, they are the favourites too,” he said. “They peaked at the correct time. They didn’t peak early season. The Boks were battling early season but look where we peaked.”
Regarding the 35–7 record-breaking hammering New Zealand received at the hands of South Africa, Smit believes the world-class team is professional enough to put the drubbing behind them.
“I don’t know if the loss will do anything to their chances in the World Cup,” he said. “They will bounce back for sure.”
Aside from the knockout stages, the two matches Smit is looking forward to most are the opener between New Zealand and France, and the game between South Africa and Ireland.
“We’ve got a lot of young talent at this stage and they’ve shown they can handle pressure. With Rassie [Erasmus] at the head, I believe we will get into the playoffs. As director of rugby, he’s coaching the Boks head coach Jacques Nienaber, and we saw what he did in 2019. His goal was actually to win this World Cup so we jumped the gun.”
Smit’s underdog for the tournament is Scotland – if there had to be a fifth team to watch, it would be this one. “They are playing such nice rugby at this stage,” the referee said.
He said England and Australia, while strong in recent world cups, are both going through a rebuilding phase and he gives them no chance of winning the trophy.
“Eddie Jones is a good coach but if you don’t have the players there is nothing you can do,” he said of the Australian manager who drafted a very young team for the tournament, rejecting the likes of former captain Michael Hooper (31) and fly-half Quade Cooper (35) to the surprise of the rugby world.
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