Steve
07-29-2009, 04:06 PM
RWC: Let's live with it
2009-07-29 14:07
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Webb Ellis Cup (File)
Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Perhaps the most perturbing thing about knowing you won’t have another Rugby World Cup in your own country for at least another 14 years is the personal age calculation involved.
I will be, good health provided, 59 if South Africa get to stage the event in 2023, and possibly less adept at consistently savouring the atmospheric fruits, shall we say, than I was as a resilient 31-year-old in heady 1995.
As Morne du Plessis ruefully noted in the aftermath of our bids for another RWC crack before 2023 being thwarted yesterday: “Even if we’re successful the next time around, 28 years is too long to wait for a country with such strong rugby passions.”
That is true … yet perhaps only partly.
For truth be told, it is not as if South Africa have been scandalously robbed by the decision to award England 2015 and the virgin territory of Japan the 2019 follow-up.
The latter, remember, were considered unfortunate to lose out to New Zealand for 2011 and might even be mildly aggrieved that they didn’t secure 2015 with England – hosts of the 2012 Olympics in London – instead being the ones to wait four more years.
Be that as it may, if you can bring yourself to neutrality and concession to logic then spreading the “union” gospel to Japan (and Asia generally, as Hong Kong and Singapore might well see group-phase action) makes great sense.
For just as it was justifiably Africa’s turn to stage soccer’s premier jamboree next year, eastern Asia – I divorce the distant, established Antipodean powers from the equation – strongly warranted so meaningful a vitamin-shot for the 15-man game.
The sevens code, after all, has made terrific strides in the region with Hong Kong the symbolic focal point for it, and there are vast expatriate communities in Asia from several bedrock union superpowers who would turn out in force to aid a buzzing, carnival feel.
England in six years’ time? Again, we cannot be too outraged. The 2011 event in geographically isolated New Zealand, with its problematic time zones for much of the rest of the rugby planet, is not expected to be a massive money-spinner and the International Rugby Board was apparently anxious to ensure a bumper boost to its reserves in 2015.
In that respect England comes up trumps: the BBC has reported that on top of the £80 million tournament fee, the UK market would attract a further £220 milllion in commercial returns from broadcasts, sponsorship and merchandising – “understood to be at least 20 percent more than the bids from either South Africa or Italy”.
Economics aren’t everything, but they also count for rather a lot.
I can also imagine hundreds of thousands of British-based South Africans whooping at the 2015 news and checking their cupboards for the state of their Springbok jerseys, while relatively comfortable armadas from our own shores to rugby matches in the northern hemisphere remain an indelible part of the landscape.
The tournament, by the way, is intended for an autumnal September 4 to October 17 in England, thus probably before the harshest onset of mud, ceaselessly grey skies and frigid temperatures.
The disappointed South African bidders for 2015 and 2019, not unexpectedly, had made a great play of the fact that our country will boast even better stadium infrastructure than usual in the aftermath of soccer’s showpiece.
They probably needed to, because some of our landmark, older rugby stadiums are creaking a bit in certain respects.
I was reminded of that during the British and Irish Lions tour, where media arrangements at venues like Loftus and Newlands were well less than satisfactory.
Those are not the be all and end all, of course, but bear in mind that the international media is hugely influential in conveying good or bad images of sporting host countries abroad.
At Newlands – whatever its bosses may protest to the contrary, I remain convinced that the suburban-throttled old dame will one day be vacated in favour of the chic 2010 soccer facility in Green Point – there is really no media centre as such, and that is incredible for a near 50 000-capacity stadium.
A cramped suite has been rezoned for journalists’ use while the press “spill-over” area is open to the tempestuous winter elements and had British and local writers alike sometimes scrambling to protect their laptops from damaging rain impregnation.
Similarly at Loftus my supposedly “accredited” seat for the pulsating second Test was effectively among the crowd and, sans power point, I was among those who had to abandon any prospect of using the key communication device at my disposal during play.
Still, here’s hoping South Africa, eventually, roars back with the rights to 2023.
You would think the tournament will be due another southern hemisphere base by then, and we would justify it most in “roster” terms against either of our Tri-Nations rivals - although Argentina might have a cheeky, not wholly outrageous stab at 2023 too.
And I’d hate to have to finally watch a second Rugby World Cup on our soil with someone else feeding me my soup before the telly …
2009-07-29 14:07
Email (javascript:void(0);) | Print (javascript:window.print())
http://cdn.24.com/files/Cms/General/d/207/420c9d0ec25940ef91fd9473306eb50c.jpg
Webb Ellis Cup (File)
Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Perhaps the most perturbing thing about knowing you won’t have another Rugby World Cup in your own country for at least another 14 years is the personal age calculation involved.
I will be, good health provided, 59 if South Africa get to stage the event in 2023, and possibly less adept at consistently savouring the atmospheric fruits, shall we say, than I was as a resilient 31-year-old in heady 1995.
As Morne du Plessis ruefully noted in the aftermath of our bids for another RWC crack before 2023 being thwarted yesterday: “Even if we’re successful the next time around, 28 years is too long to wait for a country with such strong rugby passions.”
That is true … yet perhaps only partly.
For truth be told, it is not as if South Africa have been scandalously robbed by the decision to award England 2015 and the virgin territory of Japan the 2019 follow-up.
The latter, remember, were considered unfortunate to lose out to New Zealand for 2011 and might even be mildly aggrieved that they didn’t secure 2015 with England – hosts of the 2012 Olympics in London – instead being the ones to wait four more years.
Be that as it may, if you can bring yourself to neutrality and concession to logic then spreading the “union” gospel to Japan (and Asia generally, as Hong Kong and Singapore might well see group-phase action) makes great sense.
For just as it was justifiably Africa’s turn to stage soccer’s premier jamboree next year, eastern Asia – I divorce the distant, established Antipodean powers from the equation – strongly warranted so meaningful a vitamin-shot for the 15-man game.
The sevens code, after all, has made terrific strides in the region with Hong Kong the symbolic focal point for it, and there are vast expatriate communities in Asia from several bedrock union superpowers who would turn out in force to aid a buzzing, carnival feel.
England in six years’ time? Again, we cannot be too outraged. The 2011 event in geographically isolated New Zealand, with its problematic time zones for much of the rest of the rugby planet, is not expected to be a massive money-spinner and the International Rugby Board was apparently anxious to ensure a bumper boost to its reserves in 2015.
In that respect England comes up trumps: the BBC has reported that on top of the £80 million tournament fee, the UK market would attract a further £220 milllion in commercial returns from broadcasts, sponsorship and merchandising – “understood to be at least 20 percent more than the bids from either South Africa or Italy”.
Economics aren’t everything, but they also count for rather a lot.
I can also imagine hundreds of thousands of British-based South Africans whooping at the 2015 news and checking their cupboards for the state of their Springbok jerseys, while relatively comfortable armadas from our own shores to rugby matches in the northern hemisphere remain an indelible part of the landscape.
The tournament, by the way, is intended for an autumnal September 4 to October 17 in England, thus probably before the harshest onset of mud, ceaselessly grey skies and frigid temperatures.
The disappointed South African bidders for 2015 and 2019, not unexpectedly, had made a great play of the fact that our country will boast even better stadium infrastructure than usual in the aftermath of soccer’s showpiece.
They probably needed to, because some of our landmark, older rugby stadiums are creaking a bit in certain respects.
I was reminded of that during the British and Irish Lions tour, where media arrangements at venues like Loftus and Newlands were well less than satisfactory.
Those are not the be all and end all, of course, but bear in mind that the international media is hugely influential in conveying good or bad images of sporting host countries abroad.
At Newlands – whatever its bosses may protest to the contrary, I remain convinced that the suburban-throttled old dame will one day be vacated in favour of the chic 2010 soccer facility in Green Point – there is really no media centre as such, and that is incredible for a near 50 000-capacity stadium.
A cramped suite has been rezoned for journalists’ use while the press “spill-over” area is open to the tempestuous winter elements and had British and local writers alike sometimes scrambling to protect their laptops from damaging rain impregnation.
Similarly at Loftus my supposedly “accredited” seat for the pulsating second Test was effectively among the crowd and, sans power point, I was among those who had to abandon any prospect of using the key communication device at my disposal during play.
Still, here’s hoping South Africa, eventually, roars back with the rights to 2023.
You would think the tournament will be due another southern hemisphere base by then, and we would justify it most in “roster” terms against either of our Tri-Nations rivals - although Argentina might have a cheeky, not wholly outrageous stab at 2023 too.
And I’d hate to have to finally watch a second Rugby World Cup on our soil with someone else feeding me my soup before the telly …