TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has aimed a cheeky jibe at the South African bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, referencing their previous hosting of the Fifa World Cup 2010.
On Tuesday of this week, Ireland’s bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup was dealt a huge blow as South Africa was officially recommended by a committee acting on behalf of the World Cup's organizational body. However, the fat lady has not begun to clear her throat according to the Irish bid team, as the decision will go to ballot on November 15.
South Africa met more of the criteria and scored more points than Ireland and France, having better facilities and more venues. But Varadkar believes the decision is a faulty one:
"If you look at what we have already it’s a much better stadium infrastructure than New Zealand had when they hosted the Rugby World Cup back in 2011. It was always part of our bid to upgrade our stadiums over the next five years. There’s money there to do exactly that."
"What we want is a tournament where people see matches in full stadiums in the middle of rugby communities in our cities rather than in big soccer stadiums on the outskirts of our cities that would be half-empty. That’s part of the case we’ll be making to the rugby unions.”
How could anyone say no to the Irish hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup after watching a video like this one?
