Scandalous opportunism by Wales

First topic message reminder :

or necessary business sense by the RFU?

The Telegraph are reporting,

'Wales fans could now also have a considerable slice of the 2015 World Cup to look forward to. Negotiations started in Auckland last week and are on-going but Cardiff is now likely to host the Wales pool and at least one quarter-final, with the RFU having to guarantee £80 million to the IRB the huge commercial potential of matches in Cardiff has proved irresistible but one important caveat is to be put in place.
“What we are hoping for is that the majority of Wales home games will be held in the Millennium, continues Lewis, “but when Wales play against a tier-one country in the pool that would most definitely be played somewhere else because of the home advantage. we accept that.But it makes business and rugby sense to allow Wales to play their pool games against tier two countries at the Millennium Stadium because we can fill the 74,500 capacity for such game.
“That decision will be this side of Christmas, we met here last week for a particular meeting on that issue. All talks have been sensible and good natured and about what’s best for the tournament, how to make the tournament work. '

Personally I think the WC should be held in one country alone but it may be a case of needs must. The RFU , currently seem to be in such disarray I wouldn't trust them to organise a drink up in a brewery!

However, a balance needs to be struck here - How would a so called tier 2 side like Samoa feel if they had to play a pool game against Wales at the MS. Particularly if they had had 4 days rest like this year?

chewed_mintie wrote:

Comfort wrote:

chewed_mintie wrote:

Comfort wrote:so let me get this straight.

Because Wales may have some home games in the 2015 England World Cup, we're all blaming New Zealand right?

I'll take it

Something like that…it makes perfect sense.

NZ are to blame for Wales making a deal (as Mickado explained) in bloody 1996 or whatever…..

Mintie, I'll ask no more questions, you greedy new zealanders, grrrr, arrghhhhh.

lol, it wasn't a go at you Comfort...an earlier post from mystiroakey got me slightly wound up or maybe it was a mixture of that and work!

It just seems whenever explanations are given to situations here, the valid ones are ignored and the stupid ones are suddenly proclaimed as the undeniable truth!

what an absoloute load of tosh- just because you lot cant see what is going on isnt my problem. england have been forced to try and find a way of making more money because the IRB are demanding so much from england for the world cup! one of the reasons they need so much money is becauyse they are going to loose out due to the kiwis threats!! if you cant work that out then hey lol not my problem

do you people not understand how much nz get from the irb all the time, they demand , demand and demand-

frances garantee in 2007 was 56 mill
englands in 2015 is 80 mill
2019 possible japan will be 96 mill

lets have a guess what nz got away with shall we- you guess it 56 mill

strangely enough englands jumped up 24 mill and the kiwis didnt- then it only jumps up 16 mill. do the maths yourself guys.

the rfu isnt stupid they need to sort out how to sort out this shortfall and fast and that is why wales are getting some home games- to get great revenues!! its great business- but caused by the irb's need for money- and the way NZ are demanding more and more year after year, how are they helping the situation out!!

I'd like to see England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales join forces and host a proper "Home Nations" World Cup. You'd have Lansdowne, Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millenium Stadium as well as the best club stadiums like Thomond Park and Welford Road.

We need to get back to what's important... and that is the 1999 agreement that all the old 5 nations countries signed with Wales that they MUST put matches in Cardiff in the event they host a World Cup!

Mystiroakey - what you are saying is that as part of NZ's bid in 2005, they made Tana Umaga hold a gun to the head of the IRB saying "not only are you going to give us the WC, we are only going to be charged £56m for it!"

No didn't think so either. Simple fact is had SA or Japan won the right to host this year's cup they too would have had to pay the same amount. FACT. Every 'numpty' as you have so eloquently described here can understand that.

Would you be parading them as greedy too? Oh no, they're not NZ!!!!

Maybe NZs target was set lower because its more realistic. There's going to be a smaller attendance in NZ than in England for numerous and obvious reasons, why would they set a target that's just unattainable?

AlynDavies wrote:We need to get back to what's important... and that is the 1999 agreement that all the old 5 nations countries signed with Wales that they MUST put matches in Cardiff in the event they host a World Cup!

yes. some english fans are forgetting that the rfu made a deal with wales to have games at twikkers. quid pro quo

Back to the original post. I think it's wrong. For the world cup to ultimately work and help rugby the IRB needs to set some objective standards. f that means that they have less money to invest in the game in the short term so be it, they'll gain more in the long term.

Key to this should be a level playing field in the finals. All teams have to have an equal opportunity as is possible. The teams outside of the IRB executive have been severely disadvantaged in this world cup, which undermines the credibility of the tournament and the sport.

The world cup has never really worked when it's been held in multiple nations. It loses atmosphere. Unfortunately the allocation of the game to the millennium stadium says a lot about how the IRB works.

I'll be interested to see what actually happens, as it looks like the smaller nations might be pivotal in electing the next IRB president. We could see further change in the IRB, which would only be for the better.

I couldnt agree more blackcanelion.

Mickado wrote:Maybe NZs target was set lower because its more realistic. There's going to be a smaller attendance in NZ than in England for numerous and obvious reasons, why would they set a target that's just unattainable?

one word- japan!!!!
If you want the World cup you have to pay for it, The kiwis have whinged and blakcmailed and got what they want, at the cost of every other team in international rugby!

The irb should never have given them it.

Australia pulled out of the bidding for 2015 because they couldnt afford the 80 mill.

If you cant see the point now mickado i dont think you ever will

"Key to this should be a level playing field in the finals. All teams
have to have an equal opportunity as is possible. The teams outside of
the IRB executive have been severely disadvantaged in this world cup,
which undermines the credibility of the tournament and the sport."

well we know that this isnt true because a home nation will allways get an advantage.

The irb want money and thats fine if its all allocted to growing the sport- but sadly alot of it is going to go back to the SH nations to pay for loss of revenue during world cup years, due to there recent threats. The problem is is that neglands successfull profitability is paying the nose for this, and growing nations like japan(2019) also will have no extra help by the IRB and will be paying an increase from 2015, The biggest rugby nation on planet earth didnt even have to pay an increase in 2011.

I never said i could see your point. I can. I'm just playing devils advocate here, i don't feel strongly about it one way or another.

Maybe the Japanese target is higher because the tournament is in 8 years, Japan has probably the most liquid cosumer market in the world and they're a world leader in any industry they turn their hand to. Ergo, in 8 years they figure if any developing nation (in rugby terms) can make that kind of money from the world cup it's Japan.

yeah but thats not really the point is it- japan have no barganing power- the kiwis seem to have it in bucket laods. The all blacks is a massive brand and they have the bargaining power- they see themselves like ferrari in f1(ferrari also get massive beneifits over other competiting teams). the problem is is that the IRB need to grow the game, but although the all blacks brand is so big they cant even make money out of there rugby, therefore keep trying to get more out of the IRB stunting there ability to grow the game. Time for rugby to become global not just about the all blacks. Which lets be honest rugby union just like f1 would be fine without the supposed golden boys.

The reason England and Japan are paying more for hosting the cup is because of the dramatic increase in scale of the RWC planned over the next 3 events. The NZRU were given the tournament because after this time the tournament is going to be so big that NZ would not have the infrastructure to deal with it again.

Japan and Englands payments are based on their projected turnover for the RWC not from some shabby deal at teh IRB to stitch up japan because they are a smaller nation. That is just the usual ill informed tosh.

As for this scandalous oppurtunism from Wales this was a deal done in 99 when we gave games to England and in return we would get games when it returned to the UK.

TycroesOsprey -

im going with that, or those big bad new zealanders, argghh, uuurgghhhh, grrrrrr

Japanease rugby is actually massive, the major problem they have is they are on the northern hemisphere season and only really get invited to play games in November in the middle of their season.

The last time they tried this in 2004 (?) they ended up losing by nearly 100 points to wales and 100 points to scotland because Japans clubs refused to release their main players.