SA head 2015 RWC bidding list
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:21
World Cup-winners South Africa, who lost out to arch-rivals New Zealand in the race to host the 2011 World Cup, now head a four-strong list of contenders to stage the next event in 2015.
According to a report on Yahoo!Xtra, South Africa look set to battle it out with Japan, England and Argentina for the honours to host the tournament.
Japan was initially expected to be awarded the hosting rights after narrowly missing out to New Zealand for the 2011 World Cup. South Africa got knocked out in the first round of voting, while Japan lost in the final round.
But Japan now face stiff opposition in the face of the other trio - South Africa, England and Argentina.
Argentina proved to be the darlings of last year's World Cup tournament in France, taking the rugby world by storm during their dramatic run through to winning the play-off to third and fourth, beating hosts France for the bronze medal.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) has previously been highly critical of the set-up within the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR), including withholding payments until the sporting body could show it had a professionally run hierarchy.
Last week Porfirio Carreras was voted in as UAR chairman and the IRB was hopeful changes would help Argentina make further giant strides.
IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said: "If a professional structure is not in place in Argentina, we can't organise anything there."
The IRB will decide next year who will host the 2015 World Cup.
South Africa will have on their side the fact that they are the current World Cup holders. They have hosted the tournament once previously, in 1995 where they became just the second team to win the tournament on home soil.
But ongoing political influences within South African rugby could be a factor which might count against them.
The lure of a likely financial success that a Japanese-based tournament could provide the IRB would be hard to ignore.
The Japanese proposal for the 2011 World Cup was far more lucrative to what New Zealand offered. And handing Japan the 2015 tournament could likely provide a further catalyst for the massive Asian market to embrace rugby.
Lapasset has previously said that he believed a Japanese-hosted World Cup would be a success.
The third contender is England, beaten by France for hosting rights for last year's tournament.
Details of England's bid have not been made public. But their plan for the 2007 tournament was radically different than the status quo, including the creation of a second-tier event for minnow nations.
