Rugby World Cup 2023 - Who Gets Your Vote?

To date, England, New Zealand, Australia, France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and South Africa, have all hosted games at a Rugby World Cup. In 2019, a new country will be added to that list, as Japan hosts the Rugby World Cup tournament for the very first time.

The host nation for the 2023 Rugby World Cup is still up for grabs between a number of competing nations, including France, Italy, Ireland and South Africa. The United States and Argentina also showed some interest in hosting the event but have since backed down ahead of the bidding process.

Despite being many people’s initial favorite, South Africa have recently been banned from making bids to host tournaments involving the sports of Rugby, Cricket, Netball and Athletics, as they have failed to meet the controversial “transformation targets” set by their own Government. Essentially, this is the perceived failure to provide enough opportunities for black players. With the bidding for the 2023 Rugby World Cup due to start this summer, South Africa have a lot of work to do if they are going to be able to launch a serious campaign to stage the tournament in their country.

This puts Ireland in a strong position to potentially host the tournament and Dick Spring, chairman of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup 2023 bid oversight committee, has claimed 40% of the voters have already pledged their support for Ireland’s bid. Ireland are hoping to stage matches in both the north and the south of the country, which means a wider range of stadia can be used including several impressive GAA grounds. The Irish can point to the successful hosting of matches at the 1991 and 1999 events, but as New Zealand proved, it is difficult to generate revenue in a country with a smaller population, and this may stand against them.

Italy are an interesting case and offer a new landscape to grow the game with a large captive and passionate audience. They are also the weakest rugby playing nation out of those looking to stage the 2023 World Cup, although this alone should not rule them out. Japan are unlikely to feature in the latter stages of the tournament but were still awarded the 2019 event. Italy may however struggle in terms of venues given that most of the Football stadia will be in use by their local teams. It will be interesting to see if they decide to join forces with the French and make a joint bid.

France have recently had a number of new stadiums built and improved to host football’s Euro 2016 and their infrastructure will be a big advantage. Again, many of these will be in use by the football clubs themselves at the time of year the Rugby World Cup is played. There are the stadia used from 2007, but given how recently France have actually hosted the tournament, it would be tough to justify. Much like Italy, perhaps France will see a linkup between the two countries as being a beneficial compromise.

At this stage, it’s difficult to pick which country will host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. With South Africa, who otherwise may be favourites, facing internal difficulties, the door has opened up for Ireland to host the Rugby World Cup for the first time in the history of the tournament. Otherwise a joint France & Italy bid may be a compromise. Who would get your vote?

TIMETABLE

15 June 2015 - Unions submit an expression of interest
May 2016 - World Rugby releases tender documentation
June 2016 - Deadline for unions to confirm their intent to tender a bid
May 2017 - Host for the 2023 Rugby World Cup is announced

Fred Culazzo - www.TheRugbyPod.com