Newspapers reacted with predictable elation on Saturday to New Zealand’s successful bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup, calling the International Rugby Board decision ”as welcome as it is surprising”.
”It was the best of news for a proud little nation,” the New Zealand Herald said, echoing sentiment that New Zealand’s selection ahead of Japan and South Africa was a victory for the little guy.
Wellington’s Dominion-Post proclaimed ”a great day for the game” and said the allocation of the tournament to New Zealand promised a ”World Cup bonanza,” bringing with it an estimated 400 million New Zealand dollars (-million) in tourism revenues.
Newspapers noted Japan’s ill-tempered response to the decision and the suggestions of English rugby writers that the choice of New Zealand was a consequence of rugby’s old boys’ network. But they quickly passed over those negative views and described New Zealand’s win as a triumph for traditional rugby values.
Leading writers noted the parts played in the successful bid by Prime Minister Helen Clark, whose government will substantially underwrite the costs of the tournament, All Blacks captain Tana Umaga and New Zealand Rugby Union chairperson Jock Hobbs.
They highlighted the contrast between the euphoria which greeted Friday’s decision in Dublin with the gloom that settled on New Zealand when it lost co-hosting rights to the 2003 World Cup in Australia.
The Dominion Post said New Zealand’s success was about ”taking on the world and winning”.
”The sun is shining, the All Blacks are halfway to a Grand Slam [of Test wins over the four home unions] and the English rugby writers who dismissed New Zealand’s chances of hosting the 2011 World Cup have been shown to know as little about rugby politics as they do about scrums and lineouts,” the paper said.
The Dominion Post insisted the decision was the right one for rugby, though many fans outside New Zealand have expressed disappointment the IRB did not take the chance to broaden rugby’s global appeal by staging a tournament in Asia.
”There is a passion for the game here that is unmatched anywhere except in the Welsh valleys, pockets of South Africa and the southwest of France,” it said.
”That appears to have been the telling factor in New Zealand’s bid.”
Herald rugby writer Wynne Gray reported that ”as evening settled in Dublin it brought the glow of success for New Zealand and no rising sun for Japan.
”Once the financial details were squared away, New Zealand emphasised its safety, tradition, the benefits of holding a tournament in a country infatuated with rugby and its place in the world rugby order,” Gray said.
”That tradition was too powerful for the conservative men of the IRB, a senior group who dared not risk sending their global showcase to a new frontier.” – Sapa-AP