The Bigger Picture

RFU’s commercial director, Paul Vaughan says England’s bid to host the 2015 IRB Rugby World Cup “… was based on maximising revenue with the New Zealand World Cup not likely to be particularly brilliant from a financial aspect.” And The Guardian piles in with “… the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand set to bring in the lowest return for 12 years.”

I could not bear to read the Times.

Can this bullshit end please? The 2011 World Cup will NOT run at a loss ... not as far as the IRB are concerned. They will get the same massive £56m fee from the NZRU that France paid for 2007. It is the NZRU that will take the financial hit and loss of about $30m. The Old Farts in Dublin will get their filthy lucre, along with their NZ time late night kick-offs. The IRB will wear not a smidge of loss.

And maybe we are lucky we got it at all, as now the fee they want from the host will nearly double by the 2019 tournament.

Goodbye fans, goodbye true rugby nations. They can hide all they want behind claims of wanting to be a true global code, or getting Sevens into the Olympics (who cares?). Hell, if Paris had won the 2012 Games instead of London, Sevens probably would be in there ... instead of Morris Dancing or Cheese Rolling.

These shits will sell the game out to taxpayer owned banks and debt ridden Japanese sponsors. Japan ... its all about the growing the bank balance, I mean ... game! The Home Unions, having had their way with kicking the ELVs in to touch (without even considering the ‘E’ stood for ‘experimental’) are now going to sew the next 10-15 years of World Cups up for their school chums. Italy must be fuming, as will be SARU at having their bids probably derailed by bidders being ‘recommended’ by the selection process.

Its not just all about the Tri-Nations ...