Hugo McNeill: ‘We’re part of a 70 million worldwide family of Irish people’
Speaking at the Sport For Business Sporting Year Ahead, McNeill added that the forthcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup is a chance for Ireland to show its ability to host international tournaments, while also noting that an Irish tournament would fit World Rugby’s aim of growing the game in the US.
“We have massive respect for France and it may be coming to the awareness of the French people a bit later, their bid. After Leinster-Toulon last year, I spoke to Toulon supporters who weren’t even aware France were bidding.
“They’re serious, and we know they’ll be a formidable competitor. But anything worth winning is competitive. We have to get people to think of us in a different way, not as an island of 6 million people but as part of something much broader, and if we win it they’ll be a chance for many people to play a part.
“The Women’s Rugby World Cup this year is massively important, in terms of being seen to do a good job — the question asked is ‘can you do the big event’, so we must do that successfully.
“The (women’s) tournament isn’t on the same scale but it will be watched, and we have to get behind it. It’ll be special in its own right but also as an indication that we can do big events.”
The former Ireland full-back paid tribute to the quality of the team working on the bid and to its potential for the country.
“It’s very exciting, we have a great team, we have people who’ve been working on this for a long time.
“The excitement is that this is potentially the biggest event ever on the island of Ireland. It’d be huge. At times it hits home — I was at a conference Keith Wood organised recently in Limerick on sports tourism, and he had the Munster supporters choir singing on the field on Thomond Park and I was thinking ‘if you had Argentina here, or if you had New Zealand in Killarney’.
“The thing about this project for everyone is just how big it would be for the island of Ireland, the process will be very, very competitive.”
McNeill rejected any notion Ireland were hot favourites: “I take that with a grain of salt. Anything worth winning is competitive, we’re up against two countries which have hosted World Cups before and done so successfully.
“We’ll prepare and we won’t say more than that. Joe Schmidt or Martin O’Neill, Brian Cody and Jim Gavin and Katie Taylor, they don’t say ‘we’ll go out and win’, and we’re not doing that either.”
The process comes to a head in November this year.
“It’ll be decided on November 15,” said McNeill. “Some people say ‘why don’t you get it, you haven’t got it before’. We don’t think that way. Rugby is still developing on the world stage — at the last World Cup, 230 countries took some TV coverage, and every four years World Rugby gets the chance to raise funds to run the game for the next four years, so it’s massively important for those who run the games.
“They won’t give it to us because we haven’t had it before. They’ll give it to us because there’s be a different Irish flavour — we’ll do a great job, we love people coming to Ireland and saying they had a great time when they left. Martin Snedden organised the successful New Zealand bid and said it took a long time to convince the people there that it was a good opportunity; they felt it was more important for New Zealand to win games. When they were convinced it was a chance for New Zealand to shine on the world stage, their view was it was ‘a stadium of four million people’, that everyone would help create the experience.
“When people say Ireland is small we say we’re not a stadium of 6 million or so, we say we’re part of a 70 million worldwide family of Irish people. When Ireland has called the diaspora has answered. Hundreds of thousands came back for The Gathering and the organisers of that say we could exceed that — a party for six weeks, who’d want to miss that?
“We have the network of the GAA behind us, and its 400 clubs around the world — we couldn’t do this tournament without the GAA. I went to see Paraic Duffy early on and he said it’s a no brainer: ‘if it’s good for Ireland it’s good for the GAA’.
“When we combine the country and the diaspora it’s a powerful proposition.”
Asked if there were anything to be done to ensure the success of a World Cup in Ireland, McNeill stressed the need for people to take ownership of the event, comparing it to the Special Olympics.
“We want to make this a fans’ World Cup. We have standing areas in our stadia, for instance, which gives a different experience. The stadia are in the middle of cities and people can walk to them, all of that.
“The corporate side is important, of course, that’s what drives it, but we also want a tournament people can relate to. We have to charge high prices to fund the game for the next four years, but we can offer areas like Hill 16, which is an absolutely unique atmosphere.
“Rugby brought people together in Ireland when other pressures were forcing them apart, and it’s great it’s played on an all-Ireland basis and respecting each others’ traditions. Rugby has always brought people together.
“The success of the tournament will be down to everyone on the island getting behind it. The people behind The Gathering thought they’d have 1,500 events organised for that but they ended up with 5,000, and the magic moment was when people felt it was their own project.
“We want to replicate that, to get people to come home - and to bring their friends back to see it as well. At home we want people and towns to make a fuss of teams that are visiting — the Special Olympics in 2003 was a case in point, when we took pride in our local places and shared that with the world.
“The most important strategic objective for World Rugby is to grow the game in the US. That’s why Ireland played New Zealand there, and that game produced the biggest crowd for rugby ever in the US. We can invite US clubs over, the universities, all of that — for World Rugby, a World Cup in Ireland is a great way to develop the game in the US.”
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