RWC 2011, the seventh since the inaugural event in 1987, will have cost the New Zealand tax-payers at least $40m as that was the guarantee its Government had to pay to ensure they won the rights to host them. That and visits to the UK and Ireland to shore up the votes the night before the secret ballot. By rights, they should have gone to Japan.
The Kiwis have organised and hosted a brilliant RWC but the games have hardly set the world on fire.
There needs to be a change to the voting system at the IRB and a change in the laws to encourage more back play.