RUGBY NEWS:SOUTH AFRICA will today attempt to torpedo England's chances of hosting the 2015 rugby World Cup by arguing that the bid process was flawed and weighted in Twickenham's favour.
The tournament’s hosts are due to be named today when the International Rugby Board’s council meets in Dublin. England has been recommended to the council as the preferred choice of the Rugby World Cup Ltd (RWC) board. But South Africa and Italy, the two countries who lost out, were lobbying furiously yesterday to try to derail England’s bid.
If they can persuade the council not to rubber-stamp a recommendation which would make England the 2015 hosts and take the 2019 tournament to Japan, a decision on where those events will be played will be determined by a vote of the council members. South Africa and Italy, together with England and Japan, would make their pitch to the council before the vote is taken.
South Africa’s challenge to the English bid is less against the decision that was made than the way it was done. They claim the tender specification was twice changed, once to England’s clear benefit when the condition that bids had to be underwritten by a government guarantee for the €92.6 million demanded by RWC was dropped. England, unlike South Africa, had no such guarantee.
South Africa also believe that the process favoured Twickenham from the start because the IRB needs a cash-rich tournament in 2015, with the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand set to bring in the lowest return for 12 years. It was an open secret that IRB officials wanted England to make a bid to help make up for the shortfall expected in New Zealand.
The IRB has held off negotiating some commercial deals, such as television rights, for 2011 in the hope of getting more lucrative deals on the back of its announcement of the 2015 hosts. The board believes a World Cup held in England could make a profit close on €230 million. South Africa struggled to sell tickets for the recent Lions tour and the opening Tri-Nations match against New Zealand on Saturday.
“Time will be set aside for us to state our case,” said Johan Prinsloo, the chief executive of the South African Rugby Union. “We are concerned about the process that was followed before the recommendations were made. We said as much in a letter to the IRB but, unfortunately, I cannot be specific. We have also spoken to the people we needed to because there were issues and we made sure we went through the right channels.”
GuardianService
