Two World Cups awarded at once

The International Rugby Board has revealed that it will announce the hosts of both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups next year.

The bid process for the events starts this month with the winning unions to be announced in July 2009.

After narrowly missing out to New Zealand for the right to host the 2011 tournament, Japan are expected to be among the front runners for 2015 but the fact that the tournament is outside of Europe in 2011 could see a bid from England succeed, with the IRB keen to see one of its core unions host at least one of the tournaments.

IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “The success of Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987 has been remarkable. In those 20 years it has grown into one of the top five sporting events in the world. Rugby World Cup 2007 enjoyed a cumulative global TV audience of 4 billion while 2.2 million fans attended matches. Its success has led to more players and spectators being attracted to the game.

“It is vital we continue to maximise the popularity and success of the tournament. It is the major building block of the Game as it provides substantial investment revenue for the development of Rugby around the world. Rugby World Cup 2007 generated a surplus of over £120 million which has been reinvested into the Game through grants to Unions, the underwriting of international tournaments and the funding of targeted strategic high performance programmes to increase the competitiveness of the Game.

“RWC 2007 had an economic impact of around £2.5bn in France. Governments and host nations benefit hugely from staging a Rugby World Cup and we are looking forward to the continued close involvement of governments in future tournaments.

“The IRB believes that awarding two tournaments together will provide a better timeframe for tournament planning and provide longer term certainty for hosts and commercial partners.

“As the revenue generation is vital to our ongoing development plans we recognise that Rugby World Cup has to be held in one of our senior core markets on a regular basis. However, the commercial success of the tournament also means we can now consider placing the tournament in new developing markets to assist the Game’s strategic growth. It is all about finding the right mix,” added Lapasset.

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