21 October 2011
Awarding the 2015 RWC to England is a backwards stepBut… although the decision to give a ‘non-top eight’ nation the RWC – and the decision for it to go to Asia – is commendable and will help to raise rugby’s profile in the region, the IRB’s decision to let England host the next RWC, in 2015, is predictable and backwards-looking.
The IRB professes to represent the global game, and yet again and again it turns inwards and behaves as the conservative, elite members club that it is. Of course, giving the tournament to the ‘home of rugby’ will please a lot of rugby fans: England has the support-base and the stadiums and the infrastructure to host a fantastic RWC. That’s not the point, though. There are up and coming rugby nations that are crying out to host the tournament, and if rugby really is to widen its appeal and become a truly global game, the IRB should listen to those voices.
Maybe it’s inevitable that the next RWC was destined to ‘come home’, but it saddens me that other, more deserving countries have been overlooked. If the 2015 tournament really did have to go to England, and the 2019 competition has gone to Japan, then I think the 2023 RWC should go to a country even more deserving than Japan, and that is Argentina.
I’ve seen articles saying that the USA or Russia or even, God forbid, China should host the games soon. China? What the ….? Russia? Well, they’ve got the soccer World Cup and I think they’re happy with that. The USA I can sort of understand, but only sort of. The game is still very undeveloped in the States, and while the RWC would definitely help to raise it’s profile there, one has to wonder whether the US is ready to host such a tournament. Soccer is only just starting to show up on the radar over there – rugby is way down the list.
Argentina, on the other hand, is now arguably a top six rugby nation and, as such, deserves to host the tournament. So, my vote for the 2023 tournament goes to the land of the Pumas.
