Rugby World Cup: Kurtley Beale says hosting 2027 tournament would be huge boost for the game

Kurtley Beale remembers what a difference Australia hosting the 2003 Rugby World Cup made to his career and says if the 2027 tournament is hosted here it will be a huge for the game.

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Bring the 2027 Rugby World Cup to Australia and you’ll get rugby back on the path it deserves by packing stadiums and following a crop of new generation stars.

It would be amazing to host the tournament, fill new grounds with the buzz that Bankwest Stadium has in western Sydney and enjoy all the spin-offs of such an event.

How much the Japanese are putting in to make the World Cup so memorable in their own country hits me every day over here and there would be the same energy in Australia to make such a mark.

What I mean by “new generation stars” is just that because the Wallabies all recognise how big that achievement was for the Australian Schoolboys and Under-18s to knock off New Zealand 18-14 last Friday just a few months after the Junior Wallabies did the same thing.

Many people wouldn’t realise how significant the World Cup has been in getting me hooked on rugby as my code considering I was a league kid born in Blacktown.

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Wallabies fullback Kurtley Beale (right) says he’d love to see Australia host the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Picture: Getty Images

I remember being a 14-year-old in the boarding house at Joeys (St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill) when the 2003 World Cup was held in Australia.

I never got to a game but the hype and following among the lads was brilliant and I vividly recall watching Stirling Mortlock score his intercept try to help upset the All Blacks in the semi-final.

It definitely made me more attracted to rugby and I was lucky to get similar inspiration in the school holidays a year out from the 2007 World Cup.

I was a shy fella back then but got invited to Wallabies camp at Coffs Harbour as an extra to run around for a few days with some of the superstars.

Kurtley Beale vividly remembers Stirling Mortlock’s intercept try for the Wallabies against the All Blacks at the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Picture: Brett Faulkner

I was roomed with Matt Giteau, trained with George Gregan and Steve Larkham and probably tried too hard on the training field, but it was then that I really knew I wanted to play for the Wallabies.

There’s no doubt we have hit the business end of the tournament with (Friday’s) pool game against Georgia, and what we hope is a massive quarter-final the following week.

We’ve done all the work in terms of it no longer about doing extra fitness and so on.

It’s about individually looking after the body, recovering well, and the rest is really upstairs in terms of bringing the right attitude and applying concentration to get the little things right in our plans.

Matt Toomua brings a very direct style of play. Picture: Getty Images

Matty Toomua is very direct and physical in the way he plays and he has a great opportunity at five-eighth to guide us towards the momentum we need to build in this Georgia game.

A lot was made before the tournament of covering up tattoos before entering the onsen or hot springs that are such a part of Japanese culture.

The World Cup organisers book teams, say, a private 5-6pm session so no one has to cover up any body art.

You only get a tiny towel to cover up a little at the onsen and I think the streaker from our last game against Uruguay might now be thinking he should have run on with one. It was pretty funny at the time and he got me good.

The Japanese volunteers and staff do everything with such kindness and everything is very organised.

My roomie Adam Ashley-Cooper is right at home with his obsessive-compulsive disorder because everything from shoes, shirts, soaps and toiletries are all laid out in perfect order.

A good start against Georgia, build some good momentum and we’ll be in perfect order too.