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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - South Africa may just have its easiest task yet in landing a major global sports event with its quest for a second Rugby World Cup in 2023.
Just a day after Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula confirmed that the country would seek the event for its next available vacancy in 12 years’ time, visiting International Rugby Board bosses on Friday sent out overwhelmingly powerful signals that it is ripe for another hosting crack.
And there also appears to be a good chance that the decision will be taken as early as 2013.
“South Africa has a real chance of staging it, and doing so successfully,” IRB chairperson Bernard Lapasset told Sport24, when asked whether the modern infrastructure left in the wake of the soccer World Cup last year would only enhance its credentials for rugby’s 2023 extravaganza.
With New Zealand hosting the 2011 World Cup and England (2015) and Japan (2019) already confirmed as follow-ups, major power South Africa would have gone 28 years without staging it by the time 2023 comes along, considering that 1995 was its last opportunity when Francois Pienaar’s iconic post-isolation side lifted the spoils.
“South Africa has one of the strongest rugby (cultures), and now has all these new stadiums built for the soccer ... its capacity to host very big, well-organised sports tournaments cannot be in any doubt,” Frenchman Lapasset said at a session arranged for rugby journalists at a city hotel.
Chief executive Mike Miller issued similarly encouraging words: “It’s up to (IRB) Council to decide where it will go in 2023, and also whether we will (announce) two simultaneously as we did last time in naming England and Japan. We’ll have to wait and see.
“But I would have thought that South Africa would have a very compelling bid. We’re taking a bit of risk with it going to Japan in 2019, so Council would probably want to go back to one of the traditional powerhouses of rugby four years on – your country is clearly one of those.
“We normally make the announcement six years out, but the last time we did it England were six years out and Japan 10 years out, so we may do it 10 years ahead and may reveal two tournaments at once.
“Let’s get 2011 out of the way first and then we can sit down and take a look. There’s no doubt that Japan having 10 years’ notice has been very helpful, even if a country like South Africa won’t need to put any infrastructure in as it already so (clearly exists).
“Still, it takes a lot of preparation and I would expect South Africa to lure more than 100 000 foreign guests to a World Cup.
“The prevailing view in Council is that the more time you have, the more flexible you can be in your arrangements with sponsors and broadcasters. What they want is certainty, so it helps, I think, to know as far in advance as possible where you are going.”
The IRB, in line with other major sports, is known to favour opening up World Cups to new frontiers as it seeks to spread the rugby gospel.
Not too long ago, for instance, Miller was quoted as saying that “it’s a question of when, not if” with regard to the United States hosting a RWC.
But his statement about the IRB basically wanting to return to a “banker” after the Japan 2019 experiment seems to work incredibly powerfully in South Africa’s favour for 2023 ...
Cape Town - South Africa may just have its easiest task yet in landing a major global sports event with its quest for a second Rugby World Cup in 2023.
Just a day after Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula confirmed that the country would seek the event for its next available vacancy in 12 years’ time, visiting International Rugby Board bosses on Friday sent out overwhelmingly powerful signals that it is ripe for another hosting crack.
And there also appears to be a good chance that the decision will be taken as early as 2013.
“South Africa has a real chance of staging it, and doing so successfully,” IRB chairperson Bernard Lapasset told Sport24, when asked whether the modern infrastructure left in the wake of the soccer World Cup last year would only enhance its credentials for rugby’s 2023 extravaganza.
With New Zealand hosting the 2011 World Cup and England (2015) and Japan (2019) already confirmed as follow-ups, major power South Africa would have gone 28 years without staging it by the time 2023 comes along, considering that 1995 was its last opportunity when Francois Pienaar’s iconic post-isolation side lifted the spoils.
“South Africa has one of the strongest rugby (cultures), and now has all these new stadiums built for the soccer ... its capacity to host very big, well-organised sports tournaments cannot be in any doubt,” Frenchman Lapasset said at a session arranged for rugby journalists at a city hotel.
Chief executive Mike Miller issued similarly encouraging words: “It’s up to (IRB) Council to decide where it will go in 2023, and also whether we will (announce) two simultaneously as we did last time in naming England and Japan. We’ll have to wait and see.
“But I would have thought that South Africa would have a very compelling bid. We’re taking a bit of risk with it going to Japan in 2019, so Council would probably want to go back to one of the traditional powerhouses of rugby four years on – your country is clearly one of those.
“We normally make the announcement six years out, but the last time we did it England were six years out and Japan 10 years out, so we may do it 10 years ahead and may reveal two tournaments at once.
“Let’s get 2011 out of the way first and then we can sit down and take a look. There’s no doubt that Japan having 10 years’ notice has been very helpful, even if a country like South Africa won’t need to put any infrastructure in as it already so (clearly exists).
“Still, it takes a lot of preparation and I would expect South Africa to lure more than 100 000 foreign guests to a World Cup.
“The prevailing view in Council is that the more time you have, the more flexible you can be in your arrangements with sponsors and broadcasters. What they want is certainty, so it helps, I think, to know as far in advance as possible where you are going.”
The IRB, in line with other major sports, is known to favour opening up World Cups to new frontiers as it seeks to spread the rugby gospel.
Not too long ago, for instance, Miller was quoted as saying that “it’s a question of when, not if” with regard to the United States hosting a RWC.
But his statement about the IRB basically wanting to return to a “banker” after the Japan 2019 experiment seems to work incredibly powerfully in South Africa’s favour for 2023 ...
