The hosts for the 2027 and 2031 Rugby World Cups will be decided at the same time with the organisers hoping that the success of the tournament in Japan will inspire countries from outside the traditional strongholds, such as the United States, to bid. The process will start in November next year and while South Africa (which has not staged the event since 1995) Australia and England will be potential bidders, with World Rugby looking for one of the tournaments to guarantee it a bumper profit, the organisers see commercial growth in North and South America.
“Japan 2019 will be remembered as probably the greatest World Cup,” said the World Rugby chairman, Sir Bill Beaumont, and not just because the expected operational profit for his organisation is expected to be a record £165m, exceeding the £150m generated in England four years ago.
“We’ve broken records at every level: attendance, fanzones, broadcast, digital, and social media,” Beaumont said. “But really this is only part of the story. The success of this tournament has been personified by the warmth and passion of the Japanese people. There has been a lot of talk about the future of the Brave Blossoms and we will do everything in our power to support them, and all emerging teams, in getting regular access to high level competitions.
“The World Rugby council has approved the implementation of a dual host selection process for 2027 and 2031. It will enable us to select an optimal combination of hosts rather like what we achieved when awarding the 2015 and this year’s tournaments at the same time.”
World Rugby will consider raising the number of teams taking part from 2027 from 20 to 24. “We are looking at a number of formats,” said Alan Gilpin, the World Cup’s chief operating officer, who also reported that no player had failed a drugs test in Japan.
“We would look at how to make the next four competitive and we have high performance programmes with a number of unions. This was the fairest World Cup in terms of rest periods for all the teams, but that is something else we are looking at going forward but we do not want to exceed the six-week period the tournament is played over because it is a big window and to go beyond it would be challenging.”
The Japan World Cup attracted a record 99.3 per cent attendance at grounds in the 48 matches with 1.84m tickets sold and 1.13m visiting the fanzones, more than before. There were more than 1.7 billion digital video views with the economic impact for the hosts valued at 437 billion yen. And the attendance for Saturday’s final between England and South Africa in Yokohama, 70,103, was greater than the 69,029 who watched the 2002 FIFA World Cup final between Germany and Brazil.
“Statistics would say this is the greatest World Cup ever,” said Brett Gosper, the World Rugby chief executive. “Japan 2019 showed the power of a nation that really did dare to dream and we really hope that other unions find their courage to throw their hats in the ring to host the tournament.”
There has been an upsurge in interest in rugby here because of the World Cup, sparked by Japan’s progress to the quarter-finals. England will play two Tests on tour next summer and the Brave Blossoms will play Ireland and Scotland in the autumn.
There have been reports they could be asked to join the Rugby Championship while their commercial clout is at its highest, but the Japan Rugby Football Union president Shigetaka Mori said: “Argentina did well in the 2007 World Cup and joined the Rugby Championship five years later. If we do well again in 2023, it would help our cause.”