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Should Ireland ever bid to host the Rugby World Cup again?

Paul Rouse and Mario Rosenstock joined Joe Molloy for The Sunday Paper Review on Off the Ball thi...



Should Ireland ever bid to hos...
Other Sports

Should Ireland ever bid to host the Rugby World Cup again?

Paul Rouse and Mario Rosenstock joined Joe Molloy for The Sunday Paper Review on Off the Ball this weekend. 

The fall-out from Ireland's failed bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup came up for discussion and whether we should make another attempt in the future was debated. 

"Ok so, we didn't get it. We thought we were going to get it...before the World Rugby report there was a feeling that we were going to get it. 

"Dick Spring was wandering over there like Lord Melbury in Fawlty Towers - the only thing he didn't have was a suitcase and a brick in it. A very peculiar looking gentleman, Dick Spring, wandering around these things.

"He pops up every so often and he's our chief negotiator at certian things but anyway, listen, we didn't get it - France got it. 

"They didn't think they were going to get it - why did France get it? Well it seems to be about money. But Macron (French President), wasn't involved in the French bid - he opted out.

"Bernard La Porte is shrouded in questionable allegations in France and yet he has managed to pull it off.  

"South Africa were touted by World Rugby, were recommended by World Rugby who are now basically in disgrace as well wouldn't you say? 

"So they recommended South Africa. It seems from the reading that I've done around it that South Africa on the security issue is a disaster. 

"I was telling Paul before we came in here that a lot of the night matches in South Africa have apparently been cancelled because of fears over people's safety. 

"It's rated as an extremely unstable place. It's economy was downgraded to "junk" status by Moody's two years ago - "junk" status! So, financially it has issues as well. 

"I would have thought Ireland is a great place to hold (a Rugby World Cup) and this is me speaking without bias but Ireland is a great place to hold the Rugby World Cup because it's a small country - it's easy to get from place to place. It would have been a community feel to it. 

"It's a small competition and we're a rugby loving nation. It seems that when you give the competition to a non-rugby-loving nation that it doesn't go well. 

"I don't think sales of tickets are going well in Japan and they're worried about receipts. 

"We were criticised for our stadia. We were told Pairc Ui Chaiomh wasn't built - it's finished!"

The full podcast can be heard here:

Should Ireland ever bid to host the Rugby World Cup again?

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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