World Cup ‘homecoming’

Hugo MacNeill believes staging a Rugby World Cup in Ireland in 2023 would take the game back to "the heart of rugby".

The chairman of Ireland’s bid team, flanked by politicians, Irish players and IRFU officials, outlined ambitious plans to host the tenth Rugby World Cup on the island at a press conference in Armagh yesterday.

If successful, the tournament would be run on a cross-border basis, with GAA stadia being used in conjunction with the Aviva Stadium, Thomond Park and Kingspan Stadium.

Although rival bids are expected to come from Argentina, Italy, South Africa and possibly USA, MacNeill insisted an all-Ireland Rugby World Cup would be akin to a ‘homecoming’ following the 2019 tournament in Japan.

“I think it is a bold move taking it to Japan and taking it to Asia which is great to develop the sport, and then the idea of bringing it back to a smaller place which is the heart of rugby, I genuinely believe we’d put on a welcome like no other country has done,” said the former Irish full-back.

“Martin Snedden (chairman of the 2011 Rugby World Cup) illustrated that they had to get the New Zealand population to that, but we just naturally sort of want people to come here and have a good time, enjoy it, go home and say nice things about us.”

MacNeill has spent the last ten months studying the feasibility of staging one of the biggest sporting events on the globe in this country and is already turning his attentions towards winning that race.

“We’ve just been focused on phase one, which was whether to bid or not, and now we’ve decided to go for it, phase two will be to win it.

“The model in New Zealand is probably the most comparitive to us, and they put a bid together, then had an advisory board and brought in the complementary skills to win it. So, that will be the next phase.

“From the IRB’s point of view, the amount of people who are creditable and can come forward, the better.

“There had been an indication that we were bidding and we were certainly encouraged from them because they want to see the game develop as well. I think they will be delighted with this announcement today.”

It’s understood the Irish government and Northern Ireland Executive would each have to pump approximately €100m (£80m) into staging the tournament.

For young Irish internationals like Leinster’s Jordi Murphy (23) and Connacht’s Robbie Henshaw (21), being involved in Joe Schmidt’s squad at next year’s World Cup in England is the immediate aim.

However, the prospect of still being around to compete in a home World Cup is not just exciting, but realistic.

“It’s definitely a long-term goal,” admitted Henshaw.

“Hopefully I’ll be in good shape in nine years time and the body won’t be too sore.

“It gives us a goal and a target to set ourselves towards.

“I don’t want to be retired by 30 and this will make me look after my body more and take care of the recovery points as well as I can.

“Although I’m young and don’t really do as much recovery as the older guys, in a few years I’ll have to do it the best I can to keep my body in good shape.”

Spanish-born Jordi Murphy has no background in gaelic games and said the prospect of playing in Croke Park and other GAA venues would be an exciting fringe benefit to a homegrown Rugby World Cup.

The clean sweep of victories during last month’s autumn international series, on top of the Six Nations success, has left a feel-good factor in Irish rugby which Murphy wants to capitalise on.

“Rugby has gone from strength to strength in Ireland and it shows great ambition and big backing from the IRFU to want to put on a tournament like this in Ireland,” he said.

“We’re going on an upward curve and we don’t want to plateau between now and then. We want to keep going up and up and in nine years time if we are at the peak of our game, it would be fantastic.”

Five questions

So that’s official then, just eight years, nine months and a couple of weeks until the big kick off to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in Dublin?

Cool the jets there. It’s all very well Enda Kenny predicting yesterday’s announcement by the IRFU, backed by the Irish Government and Northern Ireland Executive, means Ireland “will put together a winning bid that will be impossible to resist”. The powers that be in World Rugby may well have other ideas, not to mention expected rival bidders from Italy, South Africa, France, Australia and possibly Argentina as well as USA/Canada.

Hasn’t South Africa had its turn?

And what a success that was, the Rainbow Nation reborn through sport in 1995. They’ve proven they can stage a successful tournament and a FIFA World Cup since. They’ve a proven track record as have the Aussies, (2000 Olympics, 2003 Rugby World Cup) and French (2007 RWC). And don’t dismiss Italy, they only missed out on World Cup 2015 by three votes so some may feel they’re due.

Did someone mention the Americans?

You betcha. World Rugby’s remit is to grow the game globally and where better to take the next frontier that over the Atlantic to North America. The game’s governing body has long earmarked the USA as their sport’s biggest area for potential growth and October’s Test match between the Eagles and reigning world champions New Zealand managed to sell out Soldier Field, home to NFL’s Chicago Bears. If they throw their hat in with the Canadians, you can see the World Rugby bigwigs falling over themselves to stage their showpiece there.

I see. But what about the Irish? We’ve surely got a good case haven’t we?

With the co-operation of the GAA in making available Croke Park — the fourth-largest stadium in Europe and currently the only one in Ireland with the capacity to meet World Rugby’s minimum of 60,000 seats for the final – Casement Park in Belfast and Cork’s Pairc Uí Chaoimh, this island will have an impressive portfolio of stadia on which to base its bid. Throw in legendary rugby venues, passionate fans and some great infrastructure to the mix and Ireland’s good standing in the game has to count for something. Just tell the hoteliers not to mess it up with their price-gouging on room rates.

Speaking of costs...

If Ireland gets the gig in 2023, there will need to be some upgrading of facilities to accommodate a sporting event ranked only behind the Olympics and FIFA World Cup in importance, size and global reach. An estimate put forward by former Transport, Tourism and Sport minister Leo Varadkar earlier this year was €120m, which you can add to the fee charged by World Rugby for hosting the tournament.

So when will we find out who has the winning bid?

Based on previous bidding processes, Ireland and its rival bidders will be expected to submit their formal tenders for the 2023 tournament around the middle of 2017 with a decision from World Rugby in December of that year.