South Africa wins official endorsement host Rugby World Cup 2023

• Process redesigned to promote best-possible candidate
• Comprehensive, transparent process independently scrutinised
• World Rugby Council to make final decision on 15 November

The Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) Board has unanimously recommended to the World Rugby Council the selection of South Africa as Rugby World Cup 2023 host. The World Rugby Council will now meet on 15 November in London to consider the recommendation and vote on the next host.

The Board made its recommendation following detailed consideration of the comprehensive host candidate evaluation report. In line with World Rugby’s mission to deliver a ground-breaking, rigorous and fully transparent host selection process for its showcase event, the report is being published today as agreed by Council.

The evaluation report can be accessed in full HERE.

The evaluation of the detailed bid submissions has been led by a team of World Rugby and external area experts. This was supported throughout by stringent independent evaluation and analysis from The Sports Consultancy to ensure evidence-based objectivity and consistent application against a set of weighted scoring criteria based on the following World Rugby objectives, which were agreed by the Board, noted by Council and communicated to the host candidates:

• Venues and infrastructure commensurate with a top-tier major event
• Comprehensive and enforceable public and private sector guarantees
• A commercially successful event with a fully funded, robust financial model
• Operational excellence through an integrated and experienced delivery team
• A vision that engages and inspires domestic and international audiences and contributes to the growth of rugby at all levels
• An enabling environment of political and financial stability that respects the diversity of the Rugby World Cup’s global stakeholders
• An environment and climate suited to top-level sport in a geography that allows maximum fan mobility

World Rugby and Rugby World Cup Limited Chairman Bill Beaumont said: “This is the first Rugby World Cup host selection to take place following a complete redesign of the bidding process to promote greater transparency and maximise World Rugby's hosting objectives.

“The comprehensive and independently scrutinised evaluation reaffirmed that we have three exceptional bids but it also identified South Africa as a clear leader based on performance against the key criteria, which is supported by the Board in the recommendation.

“I would like to congratulate South Africa on a superb bid and all the bid teams for their dedication and professionalism throughout the process to date. Our colleagues on the World Rugby Council will now meet on 15 November in London to consider the Board’s recommendation and vote to decide the host of Rugby World Cup 2023.”

Independent auditors will oversee the process and the vote on 15 November, which will comprise a total of 39 votes, with a simple majority required to select the Rugby World Cup 2023 host.

For a video explanation of the RWC 2023 host selection process click HERE.

The Rugby World Cup 2023 host selection follows a complete redesign of the bidding process to promote good governance and transparency, while providing prospective host unions and governments with an opportunity to gather all the information necessary to ensure hosting capability prior to moving through the process. This re-modelling has been assisted by The Sports Consultancy, which helped develop the documentation and tools and supported World Rugby throughout the process, including the evaluation and assessment phase.

During the applicant phase, the first phase of the process, interested unions were provided with the criteria for evaluation. Initially, there were four applicant unions, but Federazione Italiana Rugby withdrew its application, leaving Federation Française de Rugby, Irish Rugby Football Union and South African Rugby Union to proceed to the candidate stage, which in itself is a mark of their ability to host. On 1 June, 2017, the three candidate unions submitted their full bid documents, which were evaluated by the World Rugby Technical Review Group. The group submitted its report to the Rugby World Cup Limited Board, which in turn made its recommendation to Council today (31 October) prior to the vote on 15 November.

Voting process for selecting Rugby World Cup 2023 host union

On Wednesday 15 November in London, World Rugby Council will decide which candidate union will host Rugby World Cup 2023. The three candidate unions will not be able to vote during the process.

That means, in total there are 39 votes left to be won, split up as follows:

• The four remaining Six Nations unions and three remaining SANZAAR unions have three votes each
• The six regional associations (Oceania Rugby, Sudamerica Rugby, Rugby Americas North, Rugby Europe, Rugby Africa and Asia Rugby) and the Japan Rugby Football Union have two votes each
• The remaining four votes belong to Georgian Rugby Union, Rugby Canada, USA Rugby and Federatia Rom?n? de Rugby. The unions/regional associations can cast their votes as they see fit, including splitting their votes or abstaining.
• The entire process is being overseen by independent auditors
• In the event of no candidate winning a clear majority (20 votes or more) after the first ballot, voting will continue until one of the candidate bids achieves the majority required.

The Rugby World Cup Limited Board is: Bill Beaumont (Chairman), Agustín Pichot (Vice-Chairman), Gareth Davies (Wales), Mike Hawker (independent), Brett Gosper (World Rugby CEO).