Irish hopes of staging part of a Rugby World Cup Finals in 2031 appear to be over after the English RFU confirmed yesterday they would put forward a bid on their own.

The newly elected Chair, Tom Ilube, spoke of the excitement of watching the 13, 14 and 15-year-olds of today who would play for England in a decade’s time growing up in the sport.

As the first black man to be elected to head one of the main sporting organisations in Britain he also said he was determined to rid the perception that the sport was a bastion of white public schoolboys. Women’s Rugby is high on his agenda with the ambition to double the size of the registered player base to 100,000 in the next five years.

As a tech entrepreneur whose latest venture was in cybersecurity, he cuts a different cloth to the traditional image of English Rugby.

In February of this year, we reported the same organisation confirming it was in discussion with the Unions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales about co-hosting the 2031 World Cup.

That was as part of the Candidate phase with bids to be submitted in January of 2022. The World Rugby Council will make a decision on the host nations for 2027 and 2031 in May of next year.

Contest

The first is expected to be a contest between Australia and Argentina. 2031 may then become a decision on whether to come back to the heartland of the game or to follow the ‘Japan’ model by bringing in a development country like the United States or Russia, both of whom have expressed initial interest.

With no hint of an Irish bid this time around it would need the latter idea to hold sway to have any chance of hosting within the next two decades.

By the time that window closes both Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium will be moving into middle age and it may be that the golden moment we had to stage one of the world’s biggest sporting tournaments will have passed.

That would be a shame given that we are the only one of the major rugby playing nations not to host the tournament.

It looks increasingly likely that missing out on 2023 to France was our one chance.

 

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