New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson can’t see the Rugby World Cup returning to Aotearoa in the near future, a view shared by their SANZAAR partner South Africa.
New Zealand have twice hosted rugby’s global showpiece, sharing the rights for the first-ever tournament in 1987 before staging it on their own in 2011.
Outside of a failed bid in 2003, New Zealand has not thrown their hat into the ring for hosting rights at any other time and outgoing chief Robinson does not expect that to change anytime soon.
Australia and USA will host the next two editions of the men’s and women’s World Cups while other countries are preparing bids for the next set, which will include the 2035 and 2039 men’s World Cups.
Spain and Japan are believed to be in the running, the latter aiming to host another tournament off the back of the 2019 success, while it has been suggested that Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar could prepare a joint bid.
South Africa unlikely to bid again
South Africa are unlikely to throw their name into the ring going forward after controversially losing out on the rights to France in 2023 despite being initially named the preferred option for World Rugby.
While the Springboks are four-time winners of the tournament, the most successful team in the competition’s history, South Africa has not hosted the World Cup since 1995 despite bidding in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023.
Bok centre Damian de Allende revealed that the team used the controversy of 2023 as motivation to beat France in the quarter-finals that year.
Damian de Allende: ‘People forget what France did to host the World Cup’
It now seems unlikely that South Africa would host the tournament.
“With the bid for the 2023 tournament, the South African government had to give a guarantee of R300 million (about £12.9 million). It will therefore be impossible for SARU to put in a bid for 2035,” a source told Rapport in September last year.
Earlier this year, a prominent rugby boss told the same publication that South Africa can’t compete financially with other countries.
“I don’t think South Africa can compete financially to host the World Cup anymore,” they said.
“The World Cup is the only real revenue stream for World Rugby, so they will always go where the big money can be made.”
South Africa provided Rugby World Cup hosting lifeline due to government intervention
New Zealand’s issue
NZ Rugby CEO Robinson highlighted similar issues for New Zealand to host the World Cup, citing the size of the stadiums in the country as a major issue.
Eden Park, the All Blacks’ fortress, has a capacity around the 50,000 mark, but other regularly used rugby venues dwarf in comparison, making it difficult for New Zealand to compete.
“One of the things that we do lag behind significantly is around our matchday income because we don’t have large stadiums in this country,” Robinson told NBR NZ when discussing NZ Rugby’s financial report.
“To be frank, we don’t have profitable stadiums as it relates to fixtures with the All Blacks… but that’s not the core focus of the latest financial report.”
He was later asked specifically about the potential of New Zealand ever hosting a Rugby World Cup again and again pointed to the size of the stadiums.
Robinson also confirmed that New Zealand attempted to come to an agreement with Australia to host some of the 2027 World Cup matches.
“It’s very hard to see with the current infrastructure that we have in this country,” he said.
“It is hard to see but that’s not to say it’s impossible. We did have conversations with Australia about trying to host a pool or at least some play-off games here but again, the stadia and the cost of stretching it across two countries made it a little bit difficult.
“Unfortunately, that didn’t go ahead and Australia are building really well towards that tournament at the moment. So it’s hard to see at this time.”