World Rugby considers bid revamp after 2023 farce

THE bidding process for the Rugby World Cup is expected to be overhauled in the wake of the controversy that accompanied France’s shock victory over South Africa and Ireland to host the 2023 tournament last month.

World Rugby was left in a humiliating position after the governing body’s council voted against its board, who had recommended that South Africa be nominated as hosts following an independent evaluation report.

Brett Gosper, World Rugby’s chief executive, announced the review after admitting the process had left the governing body “open to what is a perceived contradiction that doesn’t look tidy”.

Gosper suggested it was likely that policy of the board recommending a host would be scrapped, while the use of secret ballots and the two-week gap between the announcement of the independent evaluation and the vote taken by World Rugby’s council would come under scrutiny.

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Gosper revealed that World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and his deputy Agustin Pichot had “not been happy” to inherit the policy of the board recommending a nomination when they were elected in 2016 and had already looked at changing it.

“There are parts of the process that we will probably change next,” said Gosper. “I guess the hardest part of the review and the most contentious part was providing a recommendation. In the end we felt that was probably the right route to take. To change course halfway through was going to be uncomfortable many reasons.”

France’s triumph – largely based on its financial clout – has raised doubts about the possibility that smaller countries such as Ireland will ever be able to host the World Cup, but Gosper said: “My view is that Ireland proved a small country can actually host a World Cup.

“They provided for a country of five million people. They were highly competitive. They were sitting in terms of forecast profit area of £100million more than England’s World Cup in 2015.

“I do think they proved that if a government gets its act together and helps them out and provides them the certainty then I think there is a chance that anyone can do this provided they have got the stadia.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)