The 2011 Rugby World Cup
 

As good as it may be rugby wise, the NZ Rugby Union / Government / Councils, etc are going to make a complete mess out of hosting the world cup.

What McBeth says here is almost certain to still be happening come 2011.

It would be better for the world game to send the World Cup back to Australia. Going from France this year to NZ in 2011 is going to be such a step down in pretty much every way.

Agree/Disagree?

I think we should do a joint hosting with Aussie and NZ.

Get over your inferiority complex, NZ! Four years is eons away. For every big event, there is always a few people who are "worried" about how the country will go, and doubts float around. The passion for rugby over the Tasman means that it'll all sort itself out in the end, because the people care too much to let it be a disappointment.

Disagree.

We did a fine job of hosting the America's Cup and we made the Rugby World Cup a success in the first place.

And who wants to change Eden Park anyway. We're unbeatable there.

We'll be fine. Wanted the Waterfront stadium though

Should've gone to Japan in the first place. Made a bang-up job of the football in 2002, so would clearly have the infrastructure in place already to cope & it would've given the sport a similar shot the arm over there to the one football received.

Agree^

Yeah Japan should be hosting the next World Cup, pretty poor decision not to give it to them in the first place. Im sure they would have done a lot better job then what the Kiwis are likely to do. Not that i think its going to be a poor World Cup. They will probably get their act together by 2011. It just would have been a lot more beneficial to World Rugby if a couple non super powers hosted the World Cup.

Isn't this rather like giving a cricket World Cup to the US?

No, a better analogy would perhaps be giving the US the football WC. Japan aren't much good as a team, but the sport has always had a pretty decent minority following in terms of participation at least (the IRB site says 125,000 players spread over 4000+ clubs, Linky), rather like saw-ker in t'states. In fact I'd actually guess that before the J-League was founded it was a bigger sport than football.

The IRB is even more self-serving than the ICC &, frankly, it's something of a miracle the sport has spread beyond the Commonwealth. The rumours after NZ was awarded 2011 were that Ireland had supported their bid in return for some reciprocal piece of nepotism down the line.

Aha. No professional league for rugby union (I hate that you can't say "a rugby league") yet, then?

It's a bit simpler, I guess that's why it spreads. Stick some poles in the ground and get yourselves an egg. :p

There is a pro league of sorts (it's a bit like FC cricket in Pakistan with some companies having their own teams) but they're a little stymied because of their lack of international exposure. The quality of Rugby wouldn't be enough to justify a Super 14 team on merit, but given the potential of the market I think it's short-sighted to ignore them.

I think it must actually be fairly well renumerated too as some big-ish names have played over there, presumably not to further their careers: Leon MacDonald (current AB), Jaco van der Westhuysen (current Springbok, although omitted from their WC squad), Jamie Joseph (ex-AB who actually played for Japan in the 1999 WC before the international qualification regs were tightened) & Simon Kasprowicz (ex NSW Waratah &, yes, brother of Michael) off the top of my head.

Nathan Grey and Willie O both played over that way as well. There also been a fair few fringe Super 14 players that have tired their luck over there at times.

Having lived in Japan for the last 15 months, I have some doubts over whether Japan could host a Rugby World Cup.

Really? Can't pretend I've ever been over there, but the football WC (which, on the face of it seems a far bigger undertaking) went swimmingly.