1
A World Cup bid day in stark contrast to 2017's blood on the floor
No matter what way you turned on Thursday at the sleek Dublin Convention Centre looking out over the low tide River Liffey, you were met by celebratory smiles and fist bumps. World Rugby were in town and were doling out World Cup hosting rights to beat the band amid a giddy atmosphere of hoopla and bonhomie that can’t have been lost on the Irish.
ADVERTISEMENT
Here was the capital city of Ireland playing the amenable host on a seminal day for rugby that saw the delegations from England, Australia and the USA all crowned winners when the successful bids for five World Cup were confirmed at 11.30am local time, three and a half hours before the cast of winners were rolled out for a live media event where each contingent took it in turn to bask in their moment of glory.
It was an exercise stage-managed to the nth degree, an outcome that was essentially predictable months in advance with even the list of attendees for the ceremonial shindig openly confirmed on Monday. This schmaltzy show of unity, though, was in stark contrast to the infamous blood on the floor morning staged four and a half years ago by World Rugby in a London hotel.
In this correspondent’s 23 years of experience as a beat reporter on the global rugby circuit, there was never as brutal a moment like it, the respective delegations from Ireland and South Africa getting fed to the lions at a jam-packed, claustrophobic lower ground floor room where the cloak and dagger horse-trading of votes left France victorious and Bernie Laporte the last man standing in Kensington with a mischievous nod and wink.
Stung by the heavily criticised opaque process, it was November 2020 when World Rugby insisted that its latest bidding process – which would run from February 2021 through to May 2022 – would be fully transparent. In no way would they dare to repeat the secret three-way battle that left South Africa perplexed that its bid, which was recommended by World Rugby as the best following a lengthy pre-vote evaluation process, was gazumped on vote day.
The fuming Irish, meanwhile, vowed never to bid again after they realised their effort was a complete waste of time and energy. “My carbon footprint is very poor,” admitted Irish bid director Kevin Potts at the time as he had met every voting union in person in destinations as diverse as Buenos Aires, Miami, Outer Mongolia and Auckland. “I did 39 flights in 14 weeks – we wanted to make sure they heard from Ireland and what makes our bid special.”
There were no recriminations this time around, Australia and USA respectively getting the 2027 and 2031 men’s World Cups while England, Australia and the USA were also chosen without any fuss to respectively stage the 2025, 2029 and 2033 women’s World Cups.
ADVERTISEMENT
The voting outcomes were unanimous, 44-0 in all instances with not a hint of rancour, just satisfaction that the job was so very well done this time around. No wonder World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont looked like the cat that got the cream when he kick-off the post-announcement proceedings in the second floor Wicklow Hall which was far from capacity as the majority of the media were tuning in online rather than in person.
“Today is an historic day for our sport, confirmation of our Rugby World Cup host locations for the next decade,” chirped Beaumont. “It’s a mandate for the future of the sport which brings unprecedented certainty, unparalleled opportunity and great excitement as we look to develop the sport like never before.
“We want to make rugby as attractive and accessible as possible for everyone, a truly global sport for all and today we are taking a massive step forward towards realising that ambition.
“The pandemic did make us think in new ways and work in the spirit of collaboration with all those involved in the sport. It also afforded us a rare luxury, time to think how we might reimagine and advance the sport and today’s announcements are the most significant results so far of that new thinking.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Delivering a global game for all was very much the mantra of what followed, a series of media briefings where each of the vested interests got to say their piece and express their particular brand of optimism.
Ex-World Cup winner Phil Kearns perhaps summed it best. “This is amazing for Australian rugby, it’s exciting,” he exclaimed, revelling in his role as executive director of Rugby Australia’s successful bid. “We have got a huge opportunity. There has been some negativity around our game in Australia for a while but that stops right here. This is the day that stops and it’s all upwards for Australia.”
All upwards, too, for World Rugby. What happened in London in November 2017 is now very much consigned to history in this new-found and welcome spirit of collaboration.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
36 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments