You couldn’t make it up. World Rugby make public their six-figure detailed evaluation study to ensure the process to award the 2023 Rugby World Cup to one of three candidates is as open and transparent as possible.
That study recommends South Africa as the best bid. Two weeks later, the World Rugby council votes that the tournament should go to France.
While the process was a clear as mud, Scotland were in a modern Auld Alliance all along. Scottish Rugby, to be fair, made it perfectly clear from the outset and consistently re-iterated they would back the candidate that maximised the earning potential of the finals. That, even the evaluation study agreed, was always France.
The heart said Ireland, but they were always third in the running. Infrastructure issues outside Dublin and Belfast and the fact that both France and South Africa have experience in hosting major tournaments doomed the Irish bid. They needed a little more than sentiment and bonhomie.
South Africa also had a sentimental strand. So long a powerhouse of the game, it now badly needed the boost a RWC would bring. The evaluation study seemed to back them.
However the safe option was France. World Rugby already has gambled on going to Japan; in 2023 they at least now know they are going to a thriving rugby nation accustomed to hosting large scale events and that stadiums (some of the best on the continent) will be full.
Once the horse trading was done, they probably came to the right decision. If sentiment is taken out of the process.
