Transparency loses out to Gallic charm in race for 2023 Rugby World Cup

So much for transparency. For all the good intention of overseeing the most open, least questionable bidding process for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, governing body World Rugby is this morning as big a loser as South Africa, whose bid it unanimously recommended on October 31.

Both the organisers and its chosen host for the game’s biggest showcase had their pants pulled down by France yesterday as Bernard Laporte and his buddies proved there is still plenty of room for political dark arts when it comes to staging elite-level global sporting events.

Despite coming second behind the South Africans in World Rugby’s technical evaluation, published 17 days ago, the French effort went into overdrive to convince the blazers casting yesterday’s votes that the evaluators had got their analysis badly wrong and the World Cup should head their way. It was a coup d’etat and it means the rugby world will descend on Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse and all its host cities in six years rather than Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Or Dublin, Cork, and Belfast, for that matter.