We could do with more World Cup wonder

Rugby has always been one of those sports that has enjoyed a sizeable “spirit of the game” component – it’s there in something called the Playing Charter on World Rugby’s website – but the way the Irish and French rugby unions are behaving, they seem intent on taking a big pair of scissors to that document and destroying it as methodically as Tim Horan and Jason Little carved up midfield defences.

The bidding process for the 2023 Rugby World Cup was changed to ensure the country chosen to host was selected purely on the merits of their application. This was done to avoid some of the spine-chilling machinations and corruption that has plagued Fifa in their football World Cup bid history. The new system was ap- proved by World Rugby’s general council.

But now that the Irish and French bids have been left out in the cold by the independent selection process, suddenly they want to change the rules. Respect for the referee and accepting that his decision is final is one of the cornerstones of rugby, but it seems the bad losers will now go the football route – surrounding the referee, shouting and screaming, and going with backhanded inducements to general council members to overturn the unanimous decision of the independent review they themselves set up.

Notwithstanding the technical and economic excellence of South Africa’s bid, as one of the great rugby nations we are overdue hosting the World Cup, having put on one of the most memorable tournaments of all in 1995.

From a purely selfish point of view, it is a wonderful thing for South Africa to host rugby’s pinnacle event.

And yet there seems to be an awful lot of negativity around the country hosting the event. South Africa, as the letters pages clearly show, is not in a happy space at the moment and we all could do with something to boost our spirits.

We are of course standing at the edge of an economic precipice, but the economy wasn’t great in 1995 either and we will not have to make the massive infrastructure investments that Ireland’s bid was criticised for, seeing as though our football World Cup stadia are still all shiny and new and desperate to host some top-level events.

People with far greater financial knowledge than I tell me that sometimes the best way to attack a massive recession is through spending and expansion; government certainly believes that the R2.9 billion guarantee they have offered will be offset by hordes of foreign visitors with spending power and they are hoping for a R27 billion injection into the local economy.

Of course, six years is a long time and South Africa will be a different country in 2023. Who knows what hell the current regime will have dragged us all through, but, as in 1995, I have no doubt sport can once again make a massive difference in all our communities.

Let’s all hope and pray we once again have an inspirational, nation-building leader standing in front of 94 736 people at FNB Stadium, handing over the World Cup trophy to the Springbok captain. In 1995 we had our serious problems too – the fall of Winnie Mandela, mine disasters, murders and the horrible wounds of apartheid were just beginning to be uncovered as Madiba appointed Archbishop Desmond Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

But the Rugby World Cup did as much as any event to promote reconciliation in South Africa and we could do with another injection of sporting wonder.