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World Cup bidding process to be overhauled following 2023 debacle
By RugbyPass
In the wake of the controversy which followed France's shock victory over Ireland and South Africa to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, the bidding process is now expected to be overhauled.
France won the right to host the World Cup after a secret ballot in November and today, speaking to the Telegraph, World Rugby's chief executive, Brett Gosper, said a review would now take place after admitting the current process had left the governing body "open to what is a perceived contradiction that doesn’t look tidy".
He suggested, that it was likely the policy of the board recommending a host in future bidding processes would be scrapped, while the policy of secret ballots and the two-week gap between the announcement of the independent evaluation and the vote taken by World Rugby’s council would also be under review.
Bidding process for future Rugby World Cups to be overhauled in wake of France 2023 controversy | @GavinMairs https://t.co/HUzmsZrL36
— Telegraph Rugby (@TelegraphRugby) November 30, 2017
Gosper also revealed that World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont had “not been happy” to inherit the policy of the board recommending a nomination when he was elected in 2016 and had already looked at changing it.
“There are parts of the process that we will probably change next,” said Gosper. “I guess the hardest part of the review and the most contentious part of the review was actually providing a recommendation. To be fair on Bill and Gus [Agustin Pichot], when they arrived on the scene, they found that and they weren’t happy with that.
"But because we had embarked on a system, there were certain elements that certain countries were really keen that we were not to change. In the end we felt that was probably the right route to take. To change course halfway through the process was going to be uncomfortable for all sorts of reasons.”
Gosper also acknowledged the objections which were raised over the secret ballot, "I know we have been criticised a few times. If the fors and against were equal, from a perception point of view an open vote sounds transparent and maybe we should consider that."
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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