Celtic nations welcome French success

Ireland, Wales and Scotland today welcomed the decision to award France host nation status for Rugby World Cup 2007.

The three countries backed the French bid, which saw rivals England suffer a crushing 18-3 defeat in yesterday’s International Rugby Board Council vote.

Ireland, Wales and Scotland will stage three pool games each during World Cup 2007, with Wales, the 1999 hosts, additionally awarded a quarter-final.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of the vote because we feel the French solution answers all our rugby questions and will address all our financial issues,” said Welsh Rugby Union chief executive David Moffett.

“We were very conscious of the needs of our fans and are delighted that the Millennium Stadium will host three pool matches and a quarter-final.

“The Millennium Stadium hosted seven games in the 1999 Rugby World Cup tournament, including the final, and the old Cardiff Arms Park staged four games in the 1991 tournament hosted by England, including the third-place play-off match.

“The French Rugby Federation are to be commended for completely honouring the deal we struck with them as host union in 1999, when the WRU agreed to share the matches and profit from the tournament with England, Scotland, Ireland and France.

“While the French received around £4m from the profit-share scheme we set up, the projections being made in the French bid for 2007 look likely to net the WRU a near £7m return.”

Scotland’s two International Rugby Board Council delegates – SRU chief executive Bill Watson and general committee member Bill Nolan – also supported the French 20-team bid.

“The final FFR bid filled more of our criteria of what is best for global rugby and our own game in Scotland,” Watson said.

“Hosting pool games of the tournament involving Scotland is vital for continuing to raise the profile of rugby at every level in our country.

“We had to balance between a significant financial return and meeting our own strategic objectives in growing the game.”

England’s high-powered delegation were today digesting the full implications of what was a shattering defeat – ironically, barely a mile up the road from where England last month won the RBS 6 Nations title and Grand Slam.

IRB council members voted overwhelmingly in France’s favour, with the preferred English option of a 16-team World Cup and inaugural 20-team Rugby World Nations Cup for emerging countries never clearing the first hurdle.

In the end, it was a straight choice as to which country should host a traditional 20-nation World Cup, and England finished a distant second.

France will now host a World Cup final for the first time, utilising 10 venues - Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Nantes, Montpellier, Marseilles, Lyons, Lens and Bordeaux.

The Rugby Football Union’s sizeable cash projections – a £111m (€162m) surplus - had their preferred option been backed – were seemingly ignored.

The 2007 global spectacular will take place in September and October of that year, with the final almost certainly being held at the Stade de France.

“We put together what we believe was an excellent bid,” said RFU chairman Graeme Cattermole after the decision was announced in Dublin.

“It met all the IRB principles and was going to drive something like £90m of surplus in option A (traditional), and £111m of surplus under the preferred option, which would have helped the developing nations.

“Within the French bid, there is something like £15m of government support, which we are waiting to see how that is delivered.

“There were a lot of discussions over the last five days about the financial arrangements. We do have a difference of opinion with the IRB, and I will leave it at that at this stage,” he added.

“It’s unfortunate that people don’t have the confidence in us. We’ve got a very good, professional team, and I have no doubt that we would have delivered those figures, otherwise we wouldn’t have put them forward.

“We had independent auditors look at our figures and verify them, so therefore, it is for the IRB Council members to make their decisions. Maybe other issues came into it.”

The successful French bid is likely to generate smaller cash sums, yet there was no sense of bitterness from an English delegation that had devoted months of time and effort to planning their bid.