Bidding process for cup to be ‘tidied’

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 in a secret ballot last month to host the 2023 tournament.

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 also come under scrutiny.

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 of the review was actually providing a recommendation. To be fair on Bill and Gus, when they arrived on the scene, they found that and weren’t happy with that. But because we had embarked on a system, there were certain elements countries were keen that we were not to change one element of.

‘‘In the end we felt that was probably the right route to take. To change course halfway through the process was going to be uncomfortable for all sorts of reasons.’’

Gosper said the process had produced ‘‘three extraordinary candidates and some real certainty financially’’ but conceded the rejection of the board’s recommendation had undermined it as the council were attracted to the financial strength of France’s bid.

‘‘It has been by far the best system ever run but unfortunately it has been a little bit overshadowed by the contradiction or the perceived contradiction by the Rugby World Cup board - which looks at it terms of the execution of the tournament - and the Council, which looks at it in terms of the interests of the unions they are representing,’’ Gosper added.

‘‘So that will be part of the review and I would be surprised if we move to a recommendation again.’’