When the 2023 Rugby World Cup hosting contenders were announced, Ireland were instilled with a decent 2/1 chance of winning the rights. Only four countries had officially applied for consideration, and the main challengers to an All-Ireland bid was meant to come from South Africa.
Which is why the announcement from South Africa's minister for sport Fikile Mbalula, about how he is banning South Africa from hosting major international sporting events until a review in 2017.
In the aftermath of this announcement, it was revealed that this wouldn't affect Ireland's three-test summer tour in June - but it would affect the South African chances of winning a World Cup bid. The bidding process begins next month and a host will be decided by May 2017. It will be very hard for World Rugby to justify selecting South Africa as the host with such uncertainty surrounding whether or not their government will give permission for the tournament to be held there.
While it doesn't completely eliminate South Africa from the running, it means that they can't enter the bidding until the ban is lifted. This would firmly put Ireland into the frame as the main contenders. Ireland's cross-border bid is attractive to World Rugby, and the hosting of tier 2 nations of Georgia and Canada in recent November test windows is said to be looked on favourably.
Following yesterday's news, Ireland are now 4/9 favourites to host the tournament. That's a 35.9% increase since the news from South Africa came out. That's huge. That's incredibly exciting.
With France having hosted the tournament as recently as 2007, and Italian rugby undergoing a bit of a crisis, the odds are looking increasingly favourable for a genuine Ireland World Cup in 2023. The Italians were runners up for the 2015 bidding to England which would work in their favour.
How exciting would that be?
See Also: An Expanded Rugby World Cup Would Negatively Affect Ireland's 2023 Hosting Bid
See Also: We Now Know Who Ireland's Competitors To Host The Rugby World Cup 2023 Are
Picture credit: Oliver McVeigh / SPORTSFILE
