Ireland Women’s team reached the semi-final of this year’s tournament, defeating New Zealand along the way
Former Ireland captain Fiona Coghlan has called on the government and IRFU to tender a bid for the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup. The tendering process was announced late last week by World Rugby and the IRFU has confirmed to us that it will look into staging the competition in three years’ time.
This year’s tournament set records for TV viewing figures, media coverage and match attendances. Both the final and third/fourth place play-off, which featured Ireland and hosts France, had crowds in excess of 20,000.
Coghlan told SportsJOE, ‘Bringing a major international competition to Ireland would be brilliant. If we were to stage a successful tournament it would certainly help when it came to bidding for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
‘The last two events, in England and France, were each improvements on the last and Ireland would have to surpass that level again. To have that, I believe, Ireland would need to have a team that is challenging for the final. To that end, the union need to invest in player development, resources and proper pathways.’
Ireland achieved their best ever World Cup finish this summer when beating the United States and New Zealand on their way to the semi-finals. ‘We have been punching above our weight for the last few years,’ says Coghlan, ‘and now is the time to build on that success.’
A spokesperson for the union told us, ‘The IRFU and other unions have received information from World Rugby (formerly IRB) in relation to the bid process for 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
‘We will conduct a feasibility study into hosting the tournament. The Union Committee of the IRFU will make a decision on this matter ahead of the 2015 closing date.’
As opposed to the Men’s World Cup (or World Cup for short), the last two women’s events have been held on sporting or university campus’ before moving to larger stadiums – The Stoop in 2010 and Stade Jean Bouin in 2014 – for the semi-finals and final. Each Irish province, if interested, could be expected to send their own proposals to the IRFU were an official bid to go ahead.
Thomond Park, Musgrave Park (following its reconstruction) and the University of Limerick sports campus would both be considered for any bid involving Munster. Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald told us, ‘Any such bid is the remit of the IRFU and is not part of our brief. Such bids do require the host union provide financial guarantees.
‘In the event that the IRFU do apply to host a World Cup tournament, Munster would support that application.’
Head of Rugby World Cup, Alan Gilpin commented, ‘We have already had interest from a number of unions in hosting 2017, and judging from the media interest and crowd participation this year, I really believe it will be another fantastic event, wherever it takes place.’ World Rugby will consider bids from the beginning of next year and are scheduled to make a decision in May.
