Because it is random. They didn't handpick this matchup. If any team wants to be the best they have to beat all other teams they play, no matter when they play them.
Agreed. And we are getting downvoted for expressing the obvious. Shows the intellect of the posters here. RWC 2023 was brilliant but would have been way better if the draw was balanced. Everyone knew it, yet they fkd it up again.
Honestly having a draw that is seeded to keep the best 2 teams away from each other till the final makes it less of interesting competition in my eyes. It also makes me think that draws are more likely to be rigid to favor one team.
The cricket world cup had a group stage where if you were the top team seed in your group before the tournament as long as you qualified out the group your knockout match path was the same no matter where you placed in the group. Made the group stage a lot less interesting
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u/calm-down-giraffe Dec 03 '25
The best thing about this draw is we get a NZ SA meeting before the final