Spring‘bitterlydisappointed’as WorldCupbidendsinfailure
DICK Spring who chaired the committee that ran Ireland’s failed bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup expressed bitter disappointment following the decision to award the competition to France.
The former Tánaiste and Labour Party leader said he was disappointed for Killarney which was to be a host town in the event of a successful bid. The Tralee native also outlined what he feels were the reasons that the Irish bid wasn’t supported by the Welsh ands Scottish unions
The lack of support from Wales and Scotland has been slammed as a betrayal by some commentators. Mr Spring was more conciliatory in his comments regarding Wales and Scotland, though he did admit that their lack of support had been extremely disappointing.
“That’s the big disappointment really from all of this, that we didn’t get the support of the home nations. I would have thought after a century and a half of co-operation between Ireland, Scotland and Wales that we would have got their support,” Mr Spring said. “That is the biggest disappointment from my point of view at the end of the day.”
“Scotland made it quite clear that they were going to support whoever put up the most money. They have their own financial pressures in Scotland and they are trying to maximise their take from proceedings.”
“Wales found themselves in a situation where Gareth Davies who is a senior official ( WRU chairman) was on the sub-committee that recommended the evaluation so they felt they couldn’t go against him. We were caught in the middle of a crossfire there,” Mr Spring said.
“We had done a severe amount of lobbying with Argentina and indeed with Italy and we thought that given the level of cooperation between ourselves and Italy in the Six Nations that on, this occasion, they would have supported us,” he added.
“Overall this is a bitterly disappointing day for the IRFU, the Irish government and the Irish people.” said Mr Spring
Mr Spring also said he’s disappointed for Killarney which he said offers an excellent tourism product and that it it’s “disheartening” to see it miss out on hosting part of the global tournament.
Junior Minister for Tourism Brendan Griffin echoed Mr Spring’s disappointment. He also praised the team behind the bid who have come in for some extreme criticism – much of it unwarranted – since the likely failure of the Irish bid became apparent when South Africa were identified as preferred hosts by a panel that examined the three bids.
“It’s a disappointing outcome but it’s very heartening to know that we provided a world class bid and that we could do so again. I would like to thank Dick Spring and Brian O’Driscoll along with the team at the IRFU,” said Minister Griffin.
“I would also like to thank the Government of Northern Ireland, along with our own dedicated Sports Department, who all worked so fantastically hard together on this project,” said the Minister.
There has been considerable criticism of the Irish bid in the mainstream press and on social media. Some of the most severe criticism came from Fianna Fáil senator Terry Leydon who provoked outrage with comments he made about the bid team in the Seanad.
“It’s crying over spilt milk at this stage as far as the Rugby World Cup because really, quite frankly, they made a bags of it. Let’s call a spade a spade,” said the senator.
“They hadn’t an ability to negotiate, the Taoiseach wasn’t there to negotiate, Minister Ross was more concerned about North Korea - I don’t think they had a vote, did they?” said Senator Leydon.
“I’ll tell you one thing, when we were in power we could negotiate for world events. I wouldn’t lose our Scottish connections, I wouldn’t lose the Scottish vote or I wouldn’t lose the Welsh vote. Where were they going? Sure they wouldn’t negotiate a piss-up in a brewery for God’s sake. Give me a break,” he said.
Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond – a former rugby player – told Senator Leyden he was being “ridiculous”.
Senator Richmond said all political parties had backed the bid, adding “you don’t know anything about it and you should stick to what you know,” he said.
The IRFU said it would not be making any comment on Senator Leydon’s remarks.