2023 Rugby World Cup: NZ Rugby CEO assures South Africa of New Zealand’s vote

With the final decision on who gets to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup still pending, South Africa have at least one vote in the bag, according New Zealand Rugby (NZ Rugby) CEO Steve Tew.

Tew gave an assurance that NZ Rugby’s vote for South Africa is will be guaranteed when the final votes are cast on Wednesday, 15 November 2017.

This follows Rugby World Cup Limited’s recommendation on Tuesday that South Africa be awarded the rights to host the tournament, beating France and Ireland.

“From a New Zealand point of view our board made a decision early on that if the process was seen to have worked well and been done fairly and professionally then it would be very hard not to vote the way of the recommendation.” – Tew told the New Zealand Herald on Thursday.

World Rugby appealed to its members to take the recommendation into account when casting their votes. Tew echoed this as he added that it’s a strong guide as to which candidate is the most suitable.

“While the scores are relatively close there was a clear margin. South Africa is the best candidate so we’ll be guided by the recommendation and vote accordingly.” –he continued.

“As a councilor I would like to think the recommendation will be a very strong lead for everyone sitting around that table. We all agreed a process and criteria and as far as I can tell it’s all been done very well, produced a result and we should all now vote for that but I’ll only be sitting there with New Zealand’s votes.”

According to the scoring system used to determine the best candidate, South Africa scored 78.97%, ahead of France (75.88%) and Ireland (72.25%).

More Kiwis in All Blacks legends also voiced their support for South Africa’s bid to host the World Cup, saying it is the sensible choice.

Also read: Springboks to open 2019 Rugby World Cup against the All Blacks