It was with deep regret we must flag up this article from last week, which now requires an update.
Last week: 27 Sept
The CEO of World Rugby is a chap called Brett Gosper, an Aussie with a stellar business career behind him and an ex-rugby player with Racing Club in France to boot.
The position he holds is equivalent to the position Sepp Blatter has held in football since 1998, though to draw any more comparisons with Blatter would be deeply unfair and possibly actionable.
He did make some headlines (mainly in Wales) earlier in the year, when he composed this rather risque tweet following England's exit from the Cricket World Cup.
England fail to exit pool in World Cup ...Not the words we want to hear during #RWC2015. #CWC2015
— Brett Gosper (@brettgosper) March 9, 2015
The Welsh newspapers responded with alarm, fearing that such comments could put pressure on officials to give England the benefit of the doubt on tight calls. Warren Gatland admitted that he was 'a little bit surprised' by it and said that the head of World of Rugby 'probably doesn't need to be doing that'.
Gosper didn't apologise for the tweet but did clarify that he meant it would be good from an 'atmosphere' point of view that the home team do well.
The simple message was that it’s always nice for a country to do well in a tournament that they are organising, it was nothing beyond that.
This tournament is already going to be a huge success in terms of ticketing demand across the programmes, but only time will tell to see how well they do, and it’s entirely down to them how they perform.
We’re totally neutral: it’s up to each team to do what they can to get where they want to get in this tournament, and that’s the way it should be.
Update:
Notwithstanding, his having a full blown case of Australian-ness, a large part of Gosper, the part that is concerned with the revenue generated by the event, will recognise last night's happenings as a blow. He has remained statesmanlike this morning and is not being drawn.
PERSONAL CLARIFICATION: In the interests of full disclosure, this writer did write that Wales's poor record against Australia coupled with England's comparatively decent record against the same opposition indicated there was a fair chance Wales could still be the ones going out.
While he didn't bother any bookmakers with these opinions, and would humbly add that they weren't predictions as such (more a suggestion), he must still acknowledge it didn't turn out like that. Ah, well.
Read more: The Early England Exit Will Cost ITV, The Pub Trade, And UK Economy A Lot Of Money
