The IRFU have formally applied to host either the Rugby World Cup 2015 or 2019, nine other Unions have also expressed an interest.
The 10 Unions now have until May 8, 2009 to submit their detailed Tenders, a decision will be announced on July 28,2009
How would you feel about being ranked based on your performance 4 years ago? Pretty bad I suspect! But that’s exactly what the Rugby World Cup does!
If the current system remains in place this will be the top three:
South Africa
England
Argentina
The IRB has not ranked any of them that high in the last three years, in [...]
The 2011 World Cup should again contain 20 teams when the IRB council makes it’s decision this week.
Before the 2007 World Cup it had been decided that the number of teams would be reduced from 20 to 16 to prevent this mismatch of talent we had seen in the past (England, New Zealand etc. thrashing [...]
Argentina’s entry to global rugby lies within the constraints of the Tri-Nations rather than the Six Nations the IRB has decided!
So, Argentina must wait, and probably wait some more - with Sanzar (South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) set to negotiate a new TV deal in 2010 for the Tri-Nations it’s unlikely anything will be [...]
The Irish Inquisition has Begun!
We all expected it and now it’s happened a review of the teams lacklustre peformance in France. This years World Cup saw scrappy wins over Namibia and Georgia, a thorough beating from the French and the Irish boys on the plane home at the end of the knockout stages.
An IRFU statement [...]
This video was posted to YouTube before we got smashed out in the pool stages, but does show off some of the best memories from the early part of this year!
Well the ref at least!
Ex-international player for Ireland, Alain Rolland will be at the pinnacle of his Rugby career when referees the 2007 Rugby World Cup Final tomorrow!
The mortgage broker from Dublin is certainly looking forward to officiating this weekend’s showpiece final, a reward for his performances during the pool stages.
The Dublin native, whose father [...]
The fans anyway - shame about the team!
That’s the opinion of Peter Bills at the Belfast Telegraph!
Peter goes on to list his favourite experiences of the World Cup, including Georgia for their amazing minnows performance, the atmosphere for the Ireland games versus Georgia and Argentina, and O’Sullivan’s bravery for laying the defeat to France squarely [...]
Or so Eddie O’Sullivan says!
Eddie will be under massive pressure in the coming weeks to explain to the IRFU what happened during the disastrous run of results in France. Normally the fans celebrate, even under massive defeats (and we’ve all seen a few of those!!), but after the weekends performance some of the fans [...]
Defeat in the Parc des Princes not only pushed Ireland out of the Rugby World Cup 2007, it also knocked them all the way down to seventh in the IRB rankings.
World Cup results count for double, gaining more points for a win and losing more for a defeat.
IRB WORLD RANKINGS (As of October 1):
(1) New [...]