O’Driscoll, O’Connell could help Ireland’s World Cup bid

Star rugby players such as Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell would be fabulous ambassadors for an all-Ireland rugby bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and if the public get behind it we’ll [have a] very good chance of landing rugby’s biggest prize, Sports Minister Leo Varadker has said.

Speaking at an International Rugby Board (IRB) conference in Dublin, Mr Varadkar compared the Irish bid to the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, which unified a country still trying to emerge after decades of a brutal apartheid regime.

Mr Varadkar told up to 600 delegates that the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) wasn’t partitioned when the island split, and that even during the worst of the Troubles rugby was supported by both Catholics and Protestants.