Why didn’t South Africa win the right to host Rugby World Cup 2023? That is the question being grappled at the moment because it seems, not for the first time, the country is pulling daggers from its back.

South Africa - Ireland’s chief rivals in the battle to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup - will not be permitted to bid for the event, according to their Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.

A new Springboks coach will be named this morning with Allister Coetzee expected to be tasked with making the team a formidable force again while radically altering its racial composition.

South Africans must be patient with the pace of transformation in the country’s national rugby side and will not be asking for more black players at the World Cup, sports minister Fikile Mbalula said yesterday.

Qatar World Cup organisers insist the crisis at FIFA will not affect their preparations for the tournament in 2022.