SA urged to go green in support of 2023 bid

SA RUGBY officials are calling on South Africans to wear green today to show support for the country’s 2023 World Cup bid, which has come under fire from opponents in recent days.

The World Rugby Board assessed all the bids and last week recommended South Africa as the tournament host, ahead of rivals France and Ireland‚ second and third respectively.

SA Rugby’s bid was the clear winner‚ but their opponents have questioned the legitimacy of the assessment and made public their grievances to World Rugby.

These include the high crime rate‚ an inability to fill stadiums for Super Rugby matches‚ the continuing threat of a ratings downgrade and South Africa’s U-turn on hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games‚ among others‚ as reasons why the country should not host the event.

“Our hosting of the World Cup is crucial for South African rugby for the next six years and beyond that‚” SA Rugby general manager of corporate affairs Andy Colquhoun said in an interview on Radio 702.

“We want to recapture some of that 2010 [Soccer World Cup] and 1995 [Rugby World Cup] spirit‚ so we are urging people to show their support for the bid by wearing green [today].”

He did not mention the bid’s detractors‚ but did reaffirm South Africa’s credentials as host ahead of Wednesday’s vote of the World Rugby Council in London that will finalise the issue.

“The Rugby World Cup Board has agreed we have a triple win – we can deliver record profits‚ we can host a [attendance] record final at FNB Stadium, and more tickets than ever before will be on sale in a fabulous country with fabulous stadiums‚” he said.

A number of countries have already thrown their weight behind South Africa ahead of the vote which should be a simple rubber-stamp of the recommendation by the Rugby World Cup Board.