Saru at the starting gate to host 2019 RWC

THE South African Rugby Union (Saru) has tentatively started preparing for the possibility of hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Japan, who are slated to host the event, have been given until the end of the month to assure the sport’s governing body, World Rugby, that they can deliver the four-yearly spectacle as promised.

Last week World Rugby took the unusual step of publicly reprimanding Japan. World Rugby wanted assurances that Japan was still a viable host option and asked for the delivery of “key assurances” this month after the Japanese national government revised plans for a new stadium to host the final.

“The new National Stadium was due to be the centrepiece of an exciting programme of 12 host venues, staging the opening match, the final and other key clashes and its loss has significant impact on the overall ticketing capacity and tournament budget,” World Rugby said.

“These are critical to an event that is the lifeblood of the game, underpinning its growth worldwide and the financial support of 120 national rugby federations.”

When approached about what protocols World Rugby have in place for the nondelivery of an event, the answer was vague.

“It would be amatter for World Rugby to consider with the specific facts of the case before them,” a World Rugby spokesman said. “This is all hypothetical, but the protocol is that it would go to the World Rugby Council to approve a revised road map for whichever tournament is being discussed.”

But the Japan situation is no longer hypothetical; it’s a reality and Saru are waiting at the starting gate to step in to host a tournament they originally bid for in 2009.

Saru chief executive Jurie Roux was in London this week, and is understood to have had meetings about the possibility IN LONDON: Saru’s CEO Jurie Roux was in discussions of South Africa hosting the showpiece in four years’ time.

On the record though, Roux was coy: “World Rugby is working with the Japanese Rugby Union to deliver the 2019 tournament in Japan, which makes it entirely inappropriate to speculate on any other scenario.”

The comment might as well have been delivered with a nudge and a wink.

Australian Rugby Union president Bill Pulver has already stated that his organisation would support South Africa if Japan could not meet the deadline. “We did not bid for the 2019 World Cup [but] we desperately want another World Cup as fast as we can,” Pulver told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

“Tactically we would have to establish whether it made sense for us, if it was opened up, to go in. Our southern hemisphere friend South Africa is desperate for another World Cup … so we would have to work out whether we just get in behind and support them. To be honest, I suspect we would.”

South Africa has already completed an expression of interest to host Rugby World Cup 2023 and has received the backing of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) for that bid.

President Gideon Sam could not be reached for comment on whether Sascoc would support Saru for a late tilt at hosting 2019. But Saru deputy president Mark Alexander is on Sascoc’s board so the body will have been fully appraised of the situation.

Japan given until the end of the month to assure World Rugby that they can deliver