Ireland's Call? Let it go to voice mail.

News from Ireland this week suggests that the countries GAA stadiums may be allowed to become part of an IRFU 2023/27 World Cup bid, with the final being played at Croke Park.  An Irish world cup would undoubtedly be great fun and has many positives including being in the best time zone for TV audiences and its place in Europe making it easy for travelling fans.

But it shouldn’t happen.

Rugby needs to grow internationally, the 2011 World Cup should never have been given to New Zealand and, despite the anticipation I’m feeling for the 2015 World Cup awarding it to England was also a mistake.  New territories need to be grown into, the same old countries need to move over and give the rest of the world some ownership of the game.  Other bidders for the 2023/27 World Cups are said to be Russia, Argentina, Italy, South Africa and the United States, with the exception of South Africa all would be virgin territory for the World Cup.  Some in authority are worried that the 2019 Japan World Cup will be a bust and that 2023 needs to be a commercial certainty, this negative attitude is why Rugby never grows and never gets anywhere, the Blazers always say that we’ll play more teams in the future when they’re competitive but until you play these nations they’ll never become competitive.  Likewise until we go to these places, play them, treat them as equals and give them a sense of ownership then any attempts to grow the game will result in failure.

The next World Cup in Europe must surely go to either Italy or Russia (accepting that Russia is in Europe of course!).  Italy are prime to host a World Cup, they are becoming ever more competitive on the field at both club and international level and are also showing growth in both spectator and grass roots playing numbers.  Russia would be a brave choice, truly opening up Rugby’s frontiers but the game is growing there, they have a professional domestic league and the game seems to enjoy the favour of the government.

But the tournament should first take place on the American continent.  If either the United States or Argentina (or both) were awarded the World Cup then the IRB could proudly boast that Rugby has taken its show piece even to every region on the planet, something that FIFA can’t yet boast with the Football World Cup.  The two American contenders have the advantage of multiple time zones so European teams could play at times to suit their audiences as could Australasian nations, with the United States being the single largest market to advertise to in the world.  If, as is often claimed, it’s all about money then surely the United States will be awarded a World Cup.

South Africa has many of the same advantages and disadvantages of Ireland; it is already a major rugby nation in a desirable time zone but perhaps could be used as a kick start for the game in wider southern Africa such as Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Namibia.  It also last hosted the World Cup in 1995 so would have waited 36 years for the tournament to return if it was passed over for 2023 and 2027.  That is a long time in anybody’s book.

Hopefully the IRB council will at the very least be brave and award one of the 2023 or 2027 World Cups to an emerging nation, but with the IRB’s faintly corrupt voting structure it is only a hope that we are spared from Ireland 2023 and South Africa 2027.