Ahead of the World Cup final, what can organisations learn from successful rugby teams?

This weekend sees the culmination of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with holders South Africa taking on three-time world champions New Zealand to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.

While the two teams’ progression will not come as a major surprise to supporters, both nations have come through stern tests to reach the final. New Zealand lost their opening match to hosts France before defeating strong opposition in Ireland and Argentina in the knockout stages, while South Africa ended England’s hopes in the semi-finals.

Professor André Spicer, Dean and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) believes five key traits mark out New Zealand and South Africa from the rest, and will go a long way to deciding the victors of Saturday night’s showpiece.

“As we enter the final weekend of the World Cup, it is clear we’re about to witness a clash between two closely matched teams,” Professor Spicer said.

“Although a contest of such magnitude is very tough to call, team success can be predicted by several crucial factors, which are common to both organisations and elite sports teams. Research on rugby teams that have lifted the World Cup has identified five characteristics that lead to success.”

1. “Having the objectively strongest individual team members increases the odds of success. This may sound obvious, but many organisations select on the basis of what they think a good performer looks like rather than objective factors linked to performance. Top organisations often focus on putting aside biases and focusing on selecting individuals based on their objective strengths. Similarly, statistics show that rugby teams with the tallest backs and heaviest forwards tend to outperform others.
2. “Winning teams develop chemistry through shared experiences and are typically used to playing with one another. Most successful groups have logged a lot of time working with each other and they have developed their skills side by side. Winning rugby teams understand how to work closely with their teammates which builds a sense of shared experience and individual responsibility.
3. “Strong teams seamlessly keep operations on track. Utilising all colleagues and teammates, they stay on top of demands through good communication and resourcing. 
   
   “The same applies to rugby teams – winning teams are able to keep a game flowing. Successful rugby can be built on putting together longer passages of play and keeping the ball moving instead of stopping and starting.  
4. “Mastering the basics perfectly leads to excellent results in the office and on the rugby field. People in winning teams can do all components of a role to a consistently high level to deliver exceptional results. Rugby players are the same, in that they have more clean breaks, higher tackle rates and higher carry ratios than those generally in weaker sides. 
5. “Winning teams make the very most of all opportunities afforded to them. They seek any advantage around the edges when they are closely matched with competitors. In an office setting, this may include leveraging networking, taking advantage of new technologies or simply out-working competitors. On the rugby field this entails accurately kicking penalties and drop goals and making the most of scrums, lineouts and territory.”

All quotes can be attributed to Professor André Spicer, Dean and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass).