WORLD RUGBY CEO Brett Gosper has defended the 2023 Rugby World Cup bidding review process as “robust and fair” following criticism from Ireland and France.
Last month, the Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) board unanimously recommended South Africa to host the tournament, with RWCL chairman Bill Beaumont saying the nation was the “clear leader”, and a final decision will be made via a World Rugby Council members’ vote later this month.
However, the review has drawn heavy criticism with Ireland’s World Cup bid chairman Dick Spring stating there was a “skewed basis” scoring system, while France Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte labelled the report “laughable”.
In a strongly-worded letter, details of which were released on Wednesday, IRFU chief Philip Browne raised a number of queries about how the respective bids had been judged.
But Gosper defended the process, telling Sky Sports: “We don’t look at it in terms of small or big.
“We look at it in terms of who is presenting a magnificent facility infrastructure and everything that goes around making a World Cup a success.
“There’s a vote to come and we’ll see what happens with that. But certainly this is now the third biggest global sporting event on the planet and it does require scale and it does require facilitates that are world-class.
“And in this particular contest you’ve got two countries that very recently have hosted some world-class events beyond Rugby World Cup [Euro 2016 and Fifa World Cup 2010], and have demonstrated and been experienced in deploying their talents around events such as this.
“It’s disappointing that there have been some comments made that we don’t believe are accurate and reflect the accuracy of our report.
“We have official channels which they are using to ask us on every element of our report – why they scored it a certain way, were there errors, were there issues – and we’re in the process of answering those questions.
“But we’re very confident that our process actually is robust and stands up to any scrutiny.”
On Laporte’s comments, he added: “We were not surprised by the reaction, the disappointment, the emotion.
“Yes, I think some of the language was a bit excessive and we’d refute all of those allegations as being the most professional selection process not just for Rugby World Cup but probably for every tournament in the world.
“The transparency of it, the thoroughness of it, the professionalism of it, the use of third-party experts, the use of third-party people overseeing that the process was extremely fair is unprecedented, so no.
“Bernard Laporte has his point of view and we understand the disappointment, as indeed Ireland have demonstrated theirs as well.”
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“And in this particular contest you’ve got two countries that very recently have hosted some world-class events beyond Rugby World Cup [Euro 2016 and Fifa World Cup 2010], and have demonstrated and been experienced in deploying their talents around events such as this.”
What was the point so in Ireland submitting a bid in the first place if previous experience was going to carry so much weight? It comes across as they were leading Ireland’s bid team on the whole time.
@Sverre Feen: that’s the really frustrating thing about it. Gerry Thornley wrote a great article on it, if this is the system they’re going to follow then all countries except France, South Africa and England need not apply. It’s really limiting and pretty stupid.
@Conor Paddington: Japan,New Zealand…..
@Eamonn Duggan: Yeah, so to catch you up… this review process was initiated for the first time for the bids for the 2023 World Cup, before that it was simply the vote which is taking place next week.
New Zealand is actually a great example. Despite being a fantastic tournament, it never would have gotten through the new review process.
Anyway, try to stay informed.
@Conor Paddington: Why would NZ not have got through?
@Sverre Feen: What’s this clown smoking? Has he still not heard about the 2022 Commonwealth Games being taken away from Durban? Does that not set a few alarm bells ringing?? Does that make him confident that South Africa are the best possible candidate for 2023??!!
Stands up to any scrutiny ?? Let’s forget about the report and just do a Tony Blair like marathon flesh pressing full on campaign , it worked for the London Olympics . The votes are what counts , and the important bit is to get to the second round of votes . If France get it at least it would show World Rugby that their hamfisted process is still beatable.
Gosper’s comments seem to emphatically close the door on Ireland’s chances.
With influential figures like the NZRU’s Steve Tew also stating that it would be ridiculous to not follow the review groups’ recommendation, voters seem to be leaning heavily towards South Africa’s bid.
The two part structure with a review group and secret ballot also makes the whole process look like a bit of a farce if South Africa don’t win the bid. Voters who were behind the structure’s introduction will also vote for SA to vindicate it’s introduction.
@EK: It seems to me there’s an organised campaign to award 2023 to South Africa. I’d be amazed if there isn’t serious bribery at play here.