Irish accuse Scots of putting cash first by voting

going to support the bid that produced the greatest amount of money,’ said Browne. ‘We were disappointed, really disappointed indeed.’ Last night, the French were forced to deny claims of shady deals following their win. World Rugby spent around £500,000 on a formal recommendation for South Africa’s bid — but their council ultimately rejected the proposal. The results prompted furious South African accusations of old boy networks at play, with the final decision coming down to a secret vote between Ireland, France and South Africa. ‘There were no deals made,’ Claude Atcher, the French bid leader, told

Sportsmail. ‘No extra games in Paris. No nothing.’ South Africa were expected to be ratified as hosts after World Rugby issued a 139-page recommendation on October 31 to create a ‘transparent’ process. But a fortnight of aggressive campaigning followed and Mark Alexander, the South Africa Rugby president, claimed that the auditing process had been undermined. ‘For the last 15 months, it has been transparent, but for the last two weeks it was very opaque,’ said Alexander. ‘There was a set of rules and we abided by those rules — but several rules were broken which we are upset about. ‘There was a protocol around the way we engage, a code of conduct, and one of the rules is the way we communicate with each other. South African rugby did not attack any of the other bidders throughout the process. It is disappointing.’ The final outcome was particularly humiliating for World Rugby chairman and ex-England captain Bill Beaumont, as the RFU were among the nations to reject the South African proposal. The RFU offered their first-round vote, worth three points, to Ireland. They backed France in the second round, after the French union promised to generate a surplus of £350million — £80m more than their rivals. Scotland backed France in both rounds. ‘Humiliation for me?’ said Beaumont. ‘I don’t think so at all. We had three great bids. There’s always got to be a recommendation and that went to South Africa. Just because it went to France, that doesn’t mean there’s humiliation. ‘If you looked at it from an evaluation point of view, obviously there’s more money in France. Perhaps people might have been swayed by that. Was the length of time too long between vote and recommendation? Should there have been a recommendation? Shouldn’t

IRISH rugby chiefs have accused Scotland of putting money first after they backed France to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The French snatched the rights for the tournament from rival bidders South Africa and Ireland following a chaotic ballot victory. Bid ambassador Brian O’Driscoll hit out at both Scotland and Wales for showing a lack of solidarity after Ireland’s Celtic neighbours pledged their allegiance elsewhere. And Irish Rugby Football Union chief executive Philip Browne alleged that the SRU were only interested in supporting the tournament that would generate the most cash. ‘Scotland were consistent in that they said they were