A high-profile South African will be in Dublin next week to boost South Africa’s bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup, bid chief executive Francois Pienaar revealed on Wednesday — with eight days to go before the winner is announced.
However, he refused to disclose the identity of the mystery South African lobbyist behind the country’s attempt to become the first-ever to host a second Rugby World Cup.
Rivals New Zealand have already confirmed that their Prime Minister, Helen Clark, will lead their team to Dublin to present their case to the International Rugby Board (IRB) council on November 17.
Pienaar delayed a scheduled media conference by an hour on Wednesday to meet President Thabo Mbeki.
He declined to comment on reports that South Africa was the favourite in the race with New Zealand and Japan for the Rugby World Cup.
”We will treat every vote as the most important for us without taking anything for granted,” he said.
What he would reveal was that plans were in the offing for the return to rugby of former SA Rugby Football Union chief executive Edward Griffiths, as chief executive of the African Leopards rugby team.
Griffiths wrote South Africa’s World Cup bid book and has teamed up with former SA Rugby MD Rian Oberholzer on South Africa’s bid team.
Pienaar admitted he was becoming ”nervous” ahead of the announcement of the winning bid.
”I do wake up in the middle of the night, wondering whether we are putting the right cards on the table in some or other aspect of our presentation,” he said.
He flies to London with the bid team on Thursday for a final week of lobbying, starting with a presentation to the Welsh Rugby Union on Monday and the Rugby Football Union on Tuesday, before a meeting with Canadian and Italian representatives of the IRB.
South Africa’s presentation to the IRB council will be made next Thursday at 11.15am — barely six hours before the council announces its decision. — Sapa