NZ Gets World Cup - Opinion

By Zippy
November 17 2005

Today the rugby playing nations of the world decided that New Zealand would host the Rugby World Cup in 2011, for details and opinion read on

New Zealand have seen off the challenge of Japan and South Africa to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

IRB Chairman Dr Syd Millar made the announcement at the Radisson Hotel in Dublin and paid tribute to all three bidding Unions. "The tender process culminated this morning with excellent presentations from all three Unions, and I would like to say that I am confident that any of the three Unions could host a successful tournament."

It is the climax of a selection process which began in April 2004, and is the first time that the Host Union for an IRB Rugby World Cup has been known six years before the tournament.

Zippy Opinion:

What a shocking decision and as the Japanese Rugby Chief Yoshiro Mori said:

"The established nations pass the ball around their friends, Rugby's lost a big opportunity because of this. I don't know who voted for who but they've kept it among themselves. I don't know why they have chosen New Zealand over Japan. The ideal of rugby has disappeared with this decision. “

I really can’t believe it Japan offered a new market for rugby, they have the stadia, the support, the money, the infrastructure and world rugby is crying out for more teams to be competitive internationally, sadly the correct decision was not made.

New Zealand are a great rugby nationa but they have already hosted a world cup, the recent Lions tour showed they do not have the facilities to host the tounament, Australia raised the bar in 2003 and for me this beats the Super 14, and the expanded tri-nations as the most backward decision in rugby history.

I’m sorry Japan.