Laporte slams ‘nonsense’ RWC bid report

French federation president Bernard Laporte has dismissed the evaluation report that recommended South Africa ahead of France and Ireland as host of the 2023 Rugby World Cup as ‘‘nonsense’’, full of blatant errors and a result of incompetence.

World Rugby’s board on Tuesday recommended that South Africa host the event, placing France in second position and Ireland in third ahead of the decisive vote by the governing body’s council on Nov. 15. ‘‘We wrote to [World Rugby chairman] Bill Beaumont to point out several blatant errors,’’ Laporte said yesterday. ‘‘I don’t believe in bad faith. I rather think that it’s incompetence.’’

A spokesman for World Rugby said that the governing body was unable to comment on the matter.

South Africa received an overall score of 78.97 percent in the report to 75.88 for France and 72.25 for Ireland on a selection of weighted criteria. ‘‘How come we are less well marked than South Africa on hotels? They’re saying there are not enough hotel rooms in St Etienne. They hosted Euro 2016 matches, there are 1,500 rooms there. It’s nonsense,’’ the former Toulon and France coach said.

Laporte also said that the evaluation was carried out mostly by World Rugby employees and ‘‘not by two auditing firms as it was supposed to be’’. ‘‘We are not happy about that,’’ he said. However, Laporte remained confident France can still convince enough people to vote for his country on November 15.

‘‘The match has not begun yet,’’ he said. ‘‘And even Ireland are still in the competition. It is not up to World Rugby employees to decide who hosts the World Cup. It’s up to the federation presidents.’’

- Reuters