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Pressure group issue RWC warning

Players/Officials Steve Tew

Teams Australia | New Zealand | South Africa | Wales

A report critical of the International Rugby Board and the decision to award New Zealand the 2011 World Cup was today described as "superficial" by New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew.

Tew said he had not yet had the chance to read the report in any detail, but his initial impression was that it lacked depth.

The "Putting Rugby First" report is co-authored by lawyer Quentin Smith, chairman of English Premiership club Sale. It said the IRB was undemocratic and unrepresentative of the sport, and rugby was stuck in a "ghetto" by failing to become a truly global sport.

The report decried a voting structure that gives the International Rugby Board's eight founding members a permanent veto on any proposal.

And it cited the decision to award New Zealand the right to host the 2011 World Cup over Japan as an example of how rugby is failing to take advantage of Asian markets.

"I think the authors of this report probably need to look a little deeper. It appears at first glance to be quite superficial," Tew told Radio New Zealand today.

He said criticism of the decision to award the 2011 World Cup to New Zealand was unwarranted.

"Our bid, the Japanese bid, the South African bid - they were all analysed, scrutinised and studied...

"We had a lot of confidence we had a compelling bid, but certainly by most people's estimates we were considered to be an outsider and won the right to host the World Cup against most people's expectations."

Tew said there was a "significant contribution" from the established rugby countries to rugby in Japan, Canada, the United States, the Pacific Islands, eastern Europe, Spain and Portugal.

"I'm sure there are some very good points raised in this report but at first glance it looks to have been a little superficial. There's an awful lot going on behind the scenes."

The report makes six recommendations: an overhaul of the IRB's structure, corporate best practice applied to the body, a five-year plan for the sport's development, specific programmes with firm targets in growth regions, the 2015 World Cup being staged in one of those regions, and the inclusion of rugby sevens at the 2016 Olympics.

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