http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_unio...nal/4433818.stm

I am absolutely going to go to games between so-called Minnows - Hopefully something like Samoa vs Georgia.

Wow - I was hoping, but secretly I thought we were toast, the betting agencies had NZ at 12-1. Then again, they had Labour at 2.8-1 vs National's 1.4-1 to win the election... My God has Helen secured herself quite a legacy now. :bowdown:

This is amazing work from legends like Meads, Hobbs and growing legend Tana Umaga, and amazing vision from the IRB. It seems NZ's bid focused on the history of AB rugby and the passion NZ'ers have for Rugby; that we can fill stadiums for pool games and there will be atmosphere at all of those games, which was lacking in some parts of Australia in 2003.

A big win for NZ! :D

So where are we going to build a big fuck-off stadium for this event?

Southland, Sam, Southland.

Scuzza, I'll be with you for all the Georgia games (I ruined some of my external exams in 2003 because of my late night Georgia games I had to watch). I can't wait till I see Las Pumas (Argentina) in action here again!

6 years is plenty of time to prepare for an Olympic event, so the World Cup should be less of a hassle in comparison. Since most of our major centers have stadiums, we just need to expand and upgrade them. What's most important is that we get the transport infrastructure sorted so that we don't end up having traffic jams during the games.

Wrang. We have I think seven international venues in the country. Remember this is an IRB World Cup. It's not some clubs tournament. Grounds have minimum seating requirements, minimum covered seating percentages and so on...a lot of stadiums need a lot of work and it's times like this I rue the fact Carlaw Park was put out to pasture.

Great, this will only reignite the housing boom.

I don't think there was much vision from the IRB in this decision. Personal feelings aside, they should've gone with Japan. It's a no brainer from an expansionist perspective but ultimately the old boys got their way... feels like some insider payment/payback for the last world cup debacle.

I got a lift with my Iranian friend who drives a Taxi from time to time - we walked down to his car, which was parked in the gutted remains of Carlow park.

My grandfather played league for a long time, I think he even played a couple of games for Auckland, and my father used to take me to Carlow park when I was little to watch my cousin play league there.

It was pretty gut wrenching to see the whole park covered in stones, and how dead the stadium was. Given that Auckland is the second biggest city by area in the world with a relatively small population, you would think we could afford that hallowed space better dignity than a cheap carpark.

:(

I think your wrong on the expansion thing, MrT

The positives in choosing Japan would have been that it made the sport (more) popular in Asia; but in almost every other respect I think NZ had it over Japan, or there was a tie.

The tie is basically TV rights, both Japan and NZ have equally bad timezones for European TV.

The thing that NZ can guarentee is that we will have visitors from all over the world, (we're affordable) there will be great scenes to show around the world of stadiums full of supporters for minor games (especially great if you come from that Nation, to know someone cares) - this will showcase rugby to the world, and I don't think Japan could have delivered the same air of excitement.

Japan doesn't deserve the rugby. South America does (Scuzza disagrees with me there), but when you have Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil in the top 30, I think we should reward them and try and fuck up soccer down there.

Fuck Japan, seriously, they don't even deserve it considering the state of their sport is utterly terrible for their supposedly 'huge' player base and the huge amounts of money they piss into it. I can't believe so many people are being such tall poppies about this, in that this is blatantly going to help NZ.

As I've pointed out to some people, there's nothing wrong with having a group of very powerful rugby nations and a bunch of second and third tier nationst that don't change too much. It's nice to have stability, and to know that Kazakhstan isn't going to win one year, and China win the other.

Its cos they pour all their money into buying overseas players, rather than developing their own player resources.

Apparently they actually have a huge native player base though, and they have some massive competitions in Japan for rugby.

Who else was surprised that fucking Portugal beat Fiji, and that Romania beat Canada?

EDIT: Agreed Scuzza, they really should rebuild up the place for the World Cup.

The Japanese rugby team can't even beat a bunch of schoolgirls! That country is also higher on the rankings of nations likely to face a terrorist attack. In terms of nations (groups of them) ranked on rugby enthusiasm, it would be:

- NZ, Aussie, RSA
- Britain
- Continental Europe (France, Italy, Ireland)
- South America (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile)
- Japan (they prefer to play soccer over rugby any day)
- Former communists (Romania, Georgia)

WTF? Who turned the world upside down?!

Not to mention, upgrade all those stadiums and fix the traffic issue.

You have to remember that Japan is relatively new to the rugby scene. It will take time for them to build themselves up, even if they will never be as good as us. They were complete minnows before the soccer world cup, but did pretty awesome once there

Japan may have the money and facilities to host the Rugby World Cup, but NZ is still more deserving since we're a definite rugby nations and we reserve the right after the failed attempt to jointly host it with Australia.

You mean after we tried to snatch some of Australia's limelight? That entire thing was instigated by NZ.

We didn't try and snatch Australia's limelight at all, the Australian and New Zealand rugby unions had launched a combined bid for the world cup. However, Australia set those problems up (as in reality they were pathetic issues about corporate boxes) and complained behind our backs as loud as possible to fuck us over.

Does the Rugby World Cup have mascots?