International rugby officials have a choice between traditional strongholds and a new Asian frontier when they select the host country on Thursday for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
South Africa, New Zealand and Japan are the candidates to stage the sport’s seventh world championship. The International Rugby Board council meets in Dublin to hear final presentations and cast the vote.
Japan has only 126 000 registered rugby players but its population of 127-million, vast economy and ability to bring rugby to a new Asian audience have made it a strong contender.
”It will be a very symbolic moment. It is a choice between the present and the future,” Japan Rugby Union chief executive Koji Tokumasu said.
”We are bidding with two great rugby nations. It will be good to have a World Cup in South Africa or New Zealand, but this is a time for rugby to be played outside the traditional unions.”
Japan would use the stadiums built for the 2002 Soccer World Cup, but some question whether there is enough spectator support for the tournament. A semipro rugby tournament was only set up in 2003/04.
England’s 2003 World Cup winning flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson backs the Japan bid.
”If rugby wants to expand beyond its few traditional power bases — and that would surely be for the good for the game — then Japan is exactly the sort of nation that could make the quantum leap,” he wrote in his column in The Times on Wednesday.
New Zealand hosted — and won — the first World Cup in 1987, with the event taking place in South Africa eight years later, with the Springboks also victorious.
Australia hosted the 2003 World Cup — after New Zealand was stripped of its co-host status in a dispute over advertising.
England won the title that year.
New Zealand isn’t likely to keep bidding if unsuccessful this time.
”You never say never, but the tournament is not getting any smaller and bidding for the Cup is a tremendous drain on resources,” New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Chris Moller told New Zealand’s Dominion Post newspaper.
”We have put nearly NZ$3,5-million [$2,4-million] into this, which is a lot of rugby balls. So we definitely won’t be bidding for the Cup in 2015.”
New Zealand’s passion for rugby is unquestioned, but its small population of four million limits the sponsorship and infrastructure of its rivals. Captain Tana Umaga, currently on tour in Europe with the All Blacks, will join New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark at the final presentation.
South Africa’s bid is led by Francois Pienaar, who captained the Springboks to victory in 1995. There’s been speculation that former president Nelson Mandela may take part in the final presentation.
Twenty teams took part in the 2003 edition, including minnows Namibia, Tonga, Uruguay and Romania. France hosts the 2007 World Cup.
Thursday’s decision hinges on 19 votes. Of those, 12 are held by members from six countries — England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Australia. Canada, Italy and Argentina each have one vote. The minor nations are represented by the single votes held by the confederations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe. — Sapa-AP