No Irish joke when Cup calls

FORMER Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill says Ireland deserve to win hosting duties for the 2023 Rugby World Cup ahead of South Africa and France this week – and he believes Australia’s two votes may be decisive.

After tense and acrimonious campaigning, the winner will be decided on Wednesday when the 31-member World Rugby Council votes in a secret ballot.

South Africa are at short odds to prevail after they scored highest in an independent analysis of the three bids, which was commissioned by the Rugby World Cup board and rated a range of technical, financial and logistic criteria.

The process was brought in to avoid any FIFA-style voting scandals but after South Africa were recommended two weeks ago, it has been criticised by France and Ireland as unfair, narrow and error-strewn.

World Rugby defended the process and head office expect the World Rugby Council will stamp the recommendation this week with their votes.

O’Neill, however, believes it may not unfold that way.

The former ARU boss knows the politics of World Rugby – and Rugby World Cups – intimately, having run the 2003 World Cup in Australia and having also sat on the RWC board for long periods.

O’Neill said the RWC board had previously commissioned reviews on bidding hosts but did the work internally, as opposed to using external consultants.

“The council has been known in the past not to accept the recommendation,” O’Neill said.