SA unlikely to host another Rugby World Cup

If any South Africans still harboured hopes of another Rugby World Cup one day being hosted in the country, those were effectively extinguished by SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer at a Springbok media day on yesterday, reportsThe Citizen. It also seems unlikely that New Zealand will host theRugby World Cupagain, with financial implications for the countries, as well as World Rugby, the major reasons why it won’t be viable to return to them. It is strange that the two most successful rugby teams in the professional era, and arguably in history, the Springboks and All Blacks, won’t host anothershowpiece event, but that looks to be the way it will go, unless things change drastically in the future.

The next two world cups are already locked in, withAustralia hosting in 2027and the US in 2031, while the selection process for the 2035 event started last year. New Zealand has hosted the Rugby World Cup twice, the inaugural edition in 1987 along with Australia, and the 2011 edition on their own. South Africa hosted the famous 1995 edition, and were set to host the 2023 tournament, only for France to controversially be awarded those hosting rights, and that could now be the last chance that the country will have.

“It is a challenge for us (to host the Rugby World Cup again). The world cup is the only revenue stream for World Rugby. It must fund the game’s entire ecosystem.

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They must go where there will be support from local and national government,” explained Oberholzer. “If you compare us to Europe for example, I can’t see the same money being generated in South Africa, as it would there, or maybe somewhere in the Middle East in the future,” he said. “It is a World Rugby decision and not an SA Rugby decision.

World Rugby will drive world cups to where they believe they can make the most money, and we all have to understand that,” added Oberholzer. “You can’t complain and ask for a world cup in your ‌country, make less money, and then want the biggest slice of the cake ​when it comes to the annual grant that we get from World ‌Rugby. So it is about the income generation to feed the whole rugby ecosystem,” he said.

Oberholzer added that funding the game around the world must take priority over the traditional powerhouses wanting to host the Rugby World Cup in their countries, and that was the key reason for it going to a place like the SA in 2031. “I think we have moved away from the philosophy that everybody must get an equal chance to host a world cup. New Zealand and South Africa will not make the money out of a world cup that World Rugby needs,” said Oberholzer.

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