RUGBY NEWS - SA Rugby will have its first opportunity to react to the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid when they meet with World Rugby in the next month to do a ‘wash up’ on the process, but the likelihood is that they won’t look to bid for the 2027 tournament after three failed bids.
There is still a lot of unhappiness at the fact France won the vote after an independent committee said South Africa were the best bid for 2023, with skulduggery and backroom dealings ruling the roost to give France another World Cup just 16 years after they hosted the tournament in 2007.
While there are still several questions about the embarrassing process for World Rugby, as well as questions on how France swung the vote, SA Rugby Chief Executive Jurie Roux says a bid for the Sevens World Cup is more likely than the fifteens version, with SA Rugby having burnt its fingers far too often.
“What we will go through is a pretty big wash up in terms of process that happened at World Rugby in the months to come. We’ve already received the letter where we’ve been invited to put forward our views on what has happened and transpired which we did,” Roux said.
“We’ll now be invited, along with Ireland and France, into sharing what will be the wash up of the process that took place. Hopefully we can get our inputs there and post that. Once we have determined the rules for engagement for the next bid, we’ll make that decision.
