2011 World Cup host

[Iafeta]

In regards to Japan: it'd be akin to giving the Cricket World Cup to Japan.

Very sucky motor good for the first two, three days, and then after watching their team get rammed 164-0 it'll be back to watching Japanese pro wrestling and Sumo.

 

[c_eagle]

Guy and Nalin, wtf are you talking about. If you think that giving a Rugby World Cup to Japan when the overall interest in Rugby is relatively low, and all their team stinks, is a good idea, then you are wrong. Sure everyone *might* get behind it (a big if imo), but Japan would still get thrashed, and rugby would almost definitely fade back into oblivion straight after the event. Not only that, but it would surely be the worst RWC ever, getting decent attendances would be a major worry, the general public has no knowledge of rugby, the atmosphere would probably stink, the whole tournament would be disappointing imo.

Nalin, you are crazy if you think that rugby is going to be wiped off the radar in South Africa any time soon. And what are you suggesting anyway? That because South Africa and Australia have good things going on in soccer atm, that the IRB should completely give up on the 2 nations and instead focus all of its attentions on Asia, who currently have 0 competitive rugby nations with 0 foreseeable future prospects of ever having one?

Until there is ANY sign that rugby is expanding beyond it's traditional borders, it makes no sense at all to give it to anyone other than the major nations. You can't just stick a world cup in a country that doesn't even really want it and expect the game to suddenly start thriving there and in all of the neighbouring countries.

More people play Rugby in Japan than play in Australia.

I know I don't have to explain the corporate potential of Japan because it's self evident, if Rugby found a niche (a bigger niche) it'd be an unbelievable market to tap into. Japan's population is almost 130k people, over 30 times that of New Zealand.

New Zealand is Rugby crazy and would have supported the event if it was in any country, Japan won't even hear about it now.

Japan's professional league teams are heavily linked with corporations, Toshiba, NEC, Toyota, Sanyo, Yamaha, Ricoh and a bunch of others.

If Rugby is serious about being a world game, this would surely seem a backward step.

Japan performing well in the tournament isn't really as important as it may seem. The dollars out of sponorship in Japan would be much higher, making crowd attendances a negligiable factor for the IRB. If it would create as much interest as I think it would, because Rugby is very good at masquerading itself as a more important sport than it really is, the momentum and coverage Rugby would get would be phenomenal. The IRB are gaining nothing from NZ, it's already a hotbed. It's just a very conservative decision.

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

Rugby is very good at masquerading itself as a more important sport than it really is, the momentum and coverage Rugby would get would be phenomenal. The IRB are gaining nothing from NZ, it's already a hotbed. It's just a very conservative decision.



With bull*hit comments like that ! Why are you here trying to tell us that the IRB has made the wrong choice ?
We don't care if it went to Japan or NZ but as long as we know that a RWC is on and it will made a profit and the world will still see a great RWC .

I bet you if the RWC went to Japan, you will be here saying that the IRB had made the wrong decision and there will be empty stadiums, Japan's not ready and so on .;-)

The choice has been made and you better live with it or cry about it .

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

And?

Your upset about it .

 

[weasel]

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,17290708-23217,00.html

Japan snub lowlight for inner circle
By Wayne Smith
November 19, 2005

THERE are those who accuse the International Rugby Board of being a very limited body.

I disagree.

If ever there was an organisation with a limitless capacity to disappoint, to be close-minded, to be stupendously stupid, it is the one that runs world rugby.

Sorry, my apologies, that's not correct.

I'm allowing my frustration at the IRB's decision to award the 2011 Rugby World Cup to anyone but Japan to lead me into error.

The IRB does not, in fact, run world rugby.

What it runs is a small, smug club of English-speaking, rugby-playing countries - how France talked its way in is anyone's guess, but it'd better watch themselves - that refuses to pass the ball outside their tight little circle for fear someone might run off with it.

Like that bounder, what's his name ... William Webb Ellis.

Little did Australia coach Eddie Jones know how prescient he would be when he said the choice of country to host the 2011 Tugby World Cup was "a no-brainer".

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He was using the term figuratively, of course, believing it was bleedingly obvious that for the global good of the game, the IRB would have to choose Japan ahead of either New Zealand or South Africa.

Instead, at least 10 IRB members took him literally, switched off their brains, and awarded the tournament to the Kiwis.

This is not to belittle or insult our cousins across the Tasman.

It's beyond dispute that theirs is the best rugby team in the world, theirs the country that is most rugby-mad. And it goes without saying that they will do a wonderful job of hosting the tournament.

Indeed, there is some truth to the argument they were circulating in Dublin this week that if they were not awarded the 2011 Rugby World Cup, they might never get another chance because the event is expanding so quickly that it soon will be beyond the capacity of a small country like New Zealand to stage.

But awarding the tournament to New Zealand does nothing for the game and detracts from it because, if there is one thing the All Blacks don't need at the moment, it's the added edge of a home-ground advantage.

From a self-interest perspective, there is no denying it's to Australia's advantage for the tournament to be staged just a few hours away on the other side of the ditch.

Leaving aside the tourism spin-offs, there also are pure rugby gains. No overseas side is more familiar with New Zealand grounds and conditions than the Wallabies, and no other visiting side comes close to matching their success rate.

Despite that, the two Australian Rugby Union delegates to the IRB, Dilip Kumar and Gary Flowers, put aside shared history and SANZAR mateship to vote for Japan.

"We went with Japan because we took the view that the World Cup fundamentally is about growing the game," was how Flowers explained the ARU's thinking.

Silly Australia. It just doesn't get it.

Doesn't it realise that if the game starts flourishing in corners of the world where rugby is no more than an oddity at the moment, countries that are outside the club, like the US or Canada or Japan, might actually progress to the point where they begin to leave the club members behind.

Already Scotland has dropped off the pace.

One of the countries involved in the first rugby Test played, it has become so uncompetitive in the professional era that it is having trouble arranging matches against decent rugby nations.

And while the match in the wee small hours of tomorrow morning (AEDT) will determine whether last week's trouncing by the All Blacks was an aberration or truly an abomination, the worried talk in Ireland this week has been that the cycle that not long ago carried it to a Six Nations triumph has suddenly lost a wheel.

That's not to say it was the Scots and the Irish who scuttled Japan.

No one knows how the votes were cast, save for the Australians who came out in the open and declared themselves, even at the risk of getting up the noses of their two SANZAR partners.

But you didn't have to be a Celtic mystic to read the runes this week and realise they spelt ruin for Japan.

The club was closing ranks and on the eve of the vote Koji Tokumasu, the chief executive of the Japanese Rugby Football Union, could sense the shutout.

Japan's two rivals, he said, had been playing rugby against the other IRB foundation members for a long time and strong friendships had been forged.

"We don't have much regular contact with them," Tokumasu said, "and we have to try to make them trust that we can deliver the best World Cup."

In the end Japan failed and while the club members no doubt slapped Tokumasu on the back and gave him a hearty, "better luck next time, old chap", the danger is that there may not be a next time.

As the head of Japan's bidding team, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, bitterly observed after the winner was announced,

"The ideal of rugby has disappeared with this decision. Only the interests of the big unions remain".

The Australian

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I don't really see how any of that has rebutted my points tbh.

There is really no evidence at all that giving the World Cup to Japan would expand the game. Infact to me it seems totally counter-intuitive.

Hence it should go to the country that put in the best bid. And the country that has earnt it. To say that NZ doesn't deserve a world cup when they haven't had one in 24 years is pretty stupid. The suggestion that "we are so good we don't need the home ground advantage" is extremely patronsing when we haven't won the cup since '87.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

More people play Rugby in Japan than play in Australia.

And yet rugby is still a minority sport in Japan played at a woeful standard. What sort of hope does that give you for the future?

 

[Jackal Dog]

Full credit to jononehitwonder who posted this little rant on the IRB boards.

Risk of global spread of rugby union successfully prevented
Posted Nov 17, 2005

The leading rugby unions of the world have successfully staved off a dramatic attempt to spread rugby union around the globe by stopping Japan from hosting the 2011 World Cup.

In a tense stand off at the International Rugby Board headquarters in Dublin, the founding members of the IRB managed to repel the Japanese delegation that were striving to claim the chance to host rugby’s most prestigious event.
The rugby world had been rocked over the past few months as Japan, a country not renowned for its rugby, threatened to host the 2011 World Cup and risk spreading the rugby union gospel to the Asian world. There were even rumours that the Japanese insurgents had managed to recruit support for the Japanese coup from various famous ex-players from the major unions and a sizeable group of rugby supporters throughout the planet.

However, the IRB councillors managed to hold firm and successfully handed over the legal rights to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. The Kiwi delegation then escaped the premises moments after by helicopter.

A relieved IRB spokesperson issued the following statement: ‘We had a serious situation here whereby rugby could have raised its profile in a country that has 127 million people living in it. It also could have exposed the game throughout the Asian region and given the game a huge boost. But thankfully we prevented that. We managed to send the 2011 rights to New Zealand; we can’t neglect that important market after all.’

The IRB council thanked their cunning use of tactics for their successful repelling of the Japanese Rugby Union. ‘We had a plan to let them think we were actually on their side,’ said an unnamed delegate from the Home Unions. ‘We kept telling them that we would love to get the game away from its traditional base and find new fans. They seemed to believe us for a while. By the time they found out we were being slightly economical with the truth we had already barricaded up the building and secured all the major vantage points in the surrounding area. There was no way they could get through and eventually they had to retreat. We were then able to successfully hand over the rights to New Zealand.’

At press time the Japanese Rugby Union were cutting their losses and returning back to their homeland. Despite their audacious dreams, they will not be returning to their mother country with either good news or big dreams.
Finally, one representative of the IRB contacted The East Terrace to issue the following remark: ‘I think it was outrageous of Japan to attempt to host the World Cup. Who do they think they are? Were they tackling All Blacks in 1905 when most of us were? Have they ever tried to stop a British Lions team packed with the likes of Mike Gibson and Barry John? Were they trying to stop the great Springbok sides of the first half of the twentieth century? No! So how dare they come here and bang on about rugby to us? What next, giving Argentina some meaningful competition in between World Cups? Or, God forbid, giving the Pacific Islands some funding?’

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

imo that post proves exactly why Japan SHOULDN'T be given a world cup.

The IRB should be doing something meaningful and longterm to expand the game.

It should not be wasting it's showcase event, the World Cup, on a country that is hardly even interested. The World Cup should be about the best possible rugby tournament, first and foremost. The World Cup is not for experimentation.

When the IRB has actually done something to raise awareness and interest about rugby to a reasonable level in Japan, then it will be time to give them the cup.

 

[weasel]

Honestly Martin, how is hosting the supposed 'third biggest' sporting event in the world in a country of 4 million people going to expand the game?

This quote from soccernet says it all really:

"'Furthermore there are a limited number of countries in Europe who could manage to stage the World Cup and Germany, Italy, France and Spain have all had it since England were last the hosts in 1966.'"

There are dozens of countries in Europe more than twice the size of NZ and far more important in every way but judging by that quote from a FIFA official, most of them can give up now on ever dreaming of hosting the event that some people like to pretend is only the second biggest sporting event in the world. Yet, the rugby world cup, only "supposedly" one step down from the football world cup, can be hosted by a nation far inferior to nations viewed as inferior to FIFA for their world cup? Just shows how huge the gap is, really. A country the size of NZ will never be able to host a true world sporting event on its own, so the decision is just an affirmation on the little faith the powerbrokers have in the sport ever expanding beyond its current humble environs.

 

[Iafeta]

A country the size of NZ will never be able to host a true world sporting event on its own, so the decision is just an affirmation on the little faith the powerbrokers have in the sport ever expanding beyond its current humble environs.

?

New Zealand has successfully run the Rugby World Cup before, its co-hosted the Cricket World Cup, held two Commonwealth Games, its hosted the America's Cup twice, and the FIFA Under 19 World Cup from memory.

None of those tournaments had any notable hitches and were ran very successfully.

To suggest New Zealand will never be able to host a true world sporting event on its own, when it clearly already has done so highly successfully is just a straight out naive statement based on fiction rather than fact. People have said New Zealand shouldn't have done a lot of things through naivity - but when you scratch under the surface its a highly successful country full of pioneers, from Rutherford, to Hillary, from the women's right movement, to the formation of labour welfare, to the reconciliation with their indigenous people, to its ability to form its own judgement on whether going into non-New Zealand related wars are viable rather than sacrificing its morales in the hope of improving trade relations. New Zealand has a lot to be proud of, more than most countries of its size. We've proved people wrong again - we'll do it again.

New Zealand is a successful country, and hosting RWC11 will be no different.

 

[ThrashViking]

Nah Cuzzy Bro Aue, We root sheep all day yea aue cuz *Insert stereotype here*
& the Japanese couldnt care less about Australia or South Africa thrashing them by 100 points, it wont encourage more people globally to play the game.

 

[Jackal Dog]

the Japanese couldnt care less about Australia or South Africa thrashing them by 100 points, it wont encourage more people globally to play the game.

Yep cause the Japanese are all dirty little yellows who can't play rugby for sh*t!! I mean how dare they be compared to the almighty New Zealand and her favourtie sons the All Blacks!!! right mate?

 

[ThrashViking]

What a eat ass post, honestly.
Do you seriously think they'll be encouraged to play union more often watching there national side get a thrashing?
I mean, soccers profile in the United States has really grown since 94 eh?
Yeah, cuzzy au bro che as

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Yep cause the Japanese are all dirty little yellows who can't play rugby for sh*t!! I mean how dare they be compared to the almighty New Zealand and her favourtie sons the All Blacks!!! right mate?

Are you taking the piss out of yourself with this post? I honestly don't get it.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Honestly Martin, how is hosting the supposed 'third biggest' sporting event in the world in a country of 4 million people going to expand the game?

Dude, I just said- the World Cup shouldn't be about expanding the game. It doesn't work like that.

This quote from soccernet says it all really:

"'Furthermore there are a limited number of countries in Europe who could manage to stage the World Cup and Germany, Italy, France and Spain have all had it since England were last the hosts in 1966.'"

There are dozens of countries in Europe more than twice the size of NZ and far more important in every way

Debatable. In sporting terms there aren't that many imo.

but judging by that quote from a FIFA official, most of them can give up now on ever dreaming of hosting the event that some people like to pretend is only the second biggest sporting event in the world. Yet, the rugby world cup, only "supposedly" one step down from the football world cup, can be hosted by a nation far inferior to nations viewed as inferior to FIFA for their world cup? Just shows how huge the gap is, really. A country the size of NZ will never be able to host a true world sporting event on its own, so the decision is just an affirmation on the little faith the powerbrokers have in the sport ever expanding beyond its current humble environs.

What is your point? I don't disagree that the RWC isn't the 3rd biggest sporting event in the world. It isn't.

Are you suggesting that the IRB should be making it's decisions based on its own self-delusion?

I'm relieved that they have actually made a sane decision rather than believing their own hype.

NZ may not be capable of holding a "true world sporting event" (whatever that means), but it is more than capable of holding a "large international sporting event", which is what the RWC is.

 

[Iafeta]

Yep cause the Japanese are all dirty little yellows who can't play rugby for sh*t!! I mean how dare they be compared to the almighty New Zealand and her favourtie sons the All Blacks!!! right mate?

Sorry?

Come again?

But in English if you could?

 

[Jackal Dog]

What a eat ass post, honestly.
Do you seriously think they'll be encouraged to play union more often watching there national side get a thrashing?
I mean, soccers profile in the United States has really grown since 94 eh?
Yeah, cuzzy au bro che as

The comparison with the U.S. hosting the Soccer World Cup in 94' is BS and you know it, the "Big 4"(Gridon, Basketball, Ice Hockey and Baseball) in the states are much, much bigger than soccer or baseball in Japan, they are almost a part of U.S. culture, the same can't be said for soccer or baseball in Japan, companies pay millions of dollars and hire Hollywood actors, just for adds to be shown at half time on the Super Bowl. No sport is ever going to succeed outside the big 4 in the states.

The majority of you have no idea about Japan or Asia yet are content to right off a world cup in Asia saying it would fail and the japs couldn't give a toss about rugby. I am half (South)Korean I go there regularly to visit my relo's and I have quite a understanding of Asia in general as well.

Japan has a population of over 127 million and the world's second largest economy it also boasts some of the best stadiums in the world, this all sounds like World Cup gold to me. The two national sports of choice are baseball and soccer though they are hardly dominant, a walk down the streets of Tokyo and you will see there are just as many people who don't follow any sport as there are that do. Japan could easily be a stepping stone into the whole of Asia.

Another thing most of you probably don't know is soccer didn't even start getting big in Japan until the J-League and the Asian Champions League both started up. Whose to say it couldn't happen again with the RWC?

The Socceroo's ranked 54th in the world just beat the 17th placed Uruguans for a place in the Wold Cup, Rugby would kill for this type of competition but as the same time rugby is killing a chance of this sort of competition ever happening when the IRB only lookout for the super powers.

But who cares right? the 2015 RWC will almost certainly go to England and the 2019 to South Africa and the top 5 nations will stay the same for years to come.

The world cup being handed to NZ is just a big slap in the face to every 2nd tier nation.

Rugby is dominated by a few teams in the Pacific, 1 team from Africa and a handful of sides from Europe and it seems the IRB want to keep it that way.

I believe a soccer journalist once mockingly called the RWC the "Commonwealth Cup" I tell you what he isn't too far off.

 

[ThrashViking]

Next time doesn’t accuse me of being racist mate; I certainly did not imply that.
Some good points & yes our current facilities are woeful inadequate, hopefully we can prove the world wrong & host a unique World Cup.
We proved the critics wrong when the Lions toured our shores.

 

[CanadianSteve]

What a eat ass post, honestly.
Do you seriously think they'll be encouraged to play union more often watching there national side get a thrashing?
I mean, soccers profile in the United States has really grown since 94 eh?
Yeah, cuzzy au bro che as

Yes, soccer's profile has grown a lot in the USA since they hosted the WC. The US team in the last WC was very competitive, and will be again next time.

Instead of Japan, they should hold a RUWC in the US. They would do a bang up job of it, as they did in 94 with soccer, and the US, much more so than Japan, has the potential for becoming a rugby power if the game were to catch on there.