Scotland, Wales let us down in World Cup bid’
Spring attacks Celtic cousins’ lack of support as our failed campaign costs up to €3.25m
IRISH officials blamed a vote snub by Celtic neighbours Scotland and Wales as France was handed Rugby World Cup 2023 in a shock vote.
Taxpayers will lose out on €1.25m that the Government pumped into the Rugby World Cup bid – which cost as much as €3.25m in total.
Irish bid chairman and former tanáiste Dick Spring admitted the committee was “bitterly disappointed” to have lost out after neighbouring countries voting against us.
The all-island bid came third, behind France and South Africa, achieving only eight votes compared to 18 and 13 respectively for the other two countries.
With three votes allocated to both the Scots and Welsh, their support could have pushed Ireland to 14 votes and into a second round of voting to get to the 20 required to host the tournament.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Spring said: “The real problem here was the home countries”.
“The most disappointing fact of it all was that the home countries didn’t support us.
“We were supported by England, they said very publicly that they would support us, and Scotland and Wales didn’t support us for their own particular reasons.
“You would absolutely assume that home unions would want the World Cup in one of their partner countries, but that wasn’t apparent. Scotland said they were going to vote for whoever was offering the most money to the tournament, and Wales, because one of their council members was on the committee that made the recommendation, said they couldn’t go against him.”
Ireland got support from England, North America and Canada, among others.
France winning the right to host the tournament was still a shock, as South Africa had been recommended as favourite in an official report just weeks ago.
However, it appeared that the French successfully lobbied and won back ground in the intervening period.
Ireland being a first-time applicant to host the tournament was held against us, said Mr Spring. He said that if the governing body was going to put Ireland’s lack of experience down as a disadvantage, they should have made it clear earlier.
“If that was going to be a prohibitory factor, they should have told us that two years ago, the fact that we didn’t have the tournament before,” he said.
“That doesn’t strike me as a smart policy to spread a game around the world.”
It has emerged the doomed Irish bid cost in the region of €2.25m, the majority of which was put forward by the IRFU.
However, the Government spent €1.25m while Northern Ireland will be hit with a bill for around €250,000.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “I do not regret for a second putting forward the bid. Ireland put forward a very good bid and we would have hosted a really good tournament had we had the opportunity to do so.”
Mr Varadkar said he was “very disappointed” on behalf of the Irish people but congratulated France, saying he believed they would put on a “fabulous tournament”.
Ex-Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll, who was also closely involved in the bid, said there should be an improved method of choosing which countries host the tournaments.
He told RTÉ that World Rugby would have to “lick its wounds” following a process that has caused controversy.
“If that’s the case, it’s a shame we have had to be a guinea pig in a process that hasn’t worked.”
‘We have had to be a guinea pig in a process that has not worked’