Johannesburg - SA Rugby is set for its first opportunity to react to the disappointment of missing out on the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid when the governing body meets with World Rugby in the next month to do a ‘wash up’ on the process.
But according to SuperSport.com, 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 was the best bid for 2023, with skulduggery and backroom dealings seemingly 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 CEO 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.
“Australia have already made it known that they will make a bid for 2027 but I think you might have other challenges there in terms of Argentina and some other people wanting to host that as well.
“But that will be an Exco decision and is still a long way away. From March onwards we are going into negotiations for the British and Irish Lions on the next 12 years and hopefully we can start making announcements on that soon.
“Ideally there might be a Rugby World Cup Sevens coming up soon and maybe as an alternative we might bid for that and Cape Town is an ideal destination, an iconic city. It will probably come at a far less cost than a Rugby World Cup and not even a 1/10th of the cost and it will be a good influx for Cape Town,” Roux said.
Roux was notably upset at the process that saw the bid snatched from under South Africa’s noses, and will seek to address it with World Rugby to prevent a repeat of the process that has been so widely criticised in the past few months.
“I think if there is an independent review, it should end there. And it should be recommended, that is the whole point of an independent review," Roux continued.
“The toughest lesson for me was to swallow whatever you have been given and keep my chin up and then move on. In my position, people make decisions like in the general council and the executive and they tell me how to execute those decisions.
“The process was agreed, we got the result and we just got to move on. The toughest lesson is trust no one. Trust the people that tell you they are not going to vote for you because they are probably the honest ones.”
SA Rugby is set to make an announcement in this regard in the next few months whether it will bid to host the 2022 Sevens World Cup.
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