ARU against biennial World Cup
November 23 2007
Australia are set to oppose proposals to make the World Cup a biennial event when the International Rugby Board (IRB) member unions meet.
The game's stakeholders are set to hold a three-day forum in London next week, before the IRB will hold a council meeting on November 30 to finalise the format of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) believes the World Cup would be damaged if proposals to stage it every two years or mix it with other inter-hemisphere tournaments were accepted.
And ARU are set to back plans to keep the current format - with 20 teams taking part in the tournament every four years - and oppose moves for inter-hemisphere competitions.
"The ARU's position is the Rugby World Cup should only be every four years and it is the crown jewel and any earlier or shorter period between them would be damaging, both to the Rugby World Cup and also to the match programmes and the individual nations," said ARU deputy chief executive Matt Carroll.
"Inter-hemisphere tournaments again could be damaging to Rugby World Cup.
"We will go with an open mind, but our view is that the World Cup is the crown jewel, but the rest of the match programmes, the Six Nations, Tri-Nations are obviously very important, so they have got to be worked in.
"Anything else we do needs to have quality games and be meaningful."