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Japan’s hosting of the 2019 Rugby World Cup will reignite interest in the sport in the country, International Rugby Board (IRB) chief executive Brett Gosper told AFP on Tuesday.
The 54-year-old Australian – a centre who played for top flight French club Racing Club de France (now Racing Metro) from 1981-90 – said it was important to do so in a country that had historically been a rugby nation.
“The World Cup can reignite the latent rugby interest in Japan,” he said.
“In recent times it has come under pressure from baseball and football but Japan has traditionally had a lot of heart and passion for rugby.
“There is a lot of corporate interest in the sport and a lot of young people play it, for instance it is very popular in the universities.
“However, it has lost a bit of its currency in recent years and the World Cup can reignite that.”
Gosper, a former leading advertising executive who worked in France, England and Germany, said Japan hosting the tournament, which he termed the third largest sporting event in the world, could only help spread rugby’s appeal in Asia.
“Asia obviously has the largest youth population in the world,” he said.
“Thus the hosting of the World Cup in Japan will we hope help rugby grow in Asia as well.”
Gosper, who has been in his present post since July 2012, said the next few years for the sport were going to be very important.
The 2015 World Cup is being hosted by England and the following year the sport of rugby sevens makes its Olympics debut in Rio de Janeiro.
“As Sebastian Coe said, with those two events following on each other, the combined noise will be enormous,” he said.
Gosper said that far from stealing the XV discipline’s thunder, as some have commented, the huge popularity of the sevens game was helping it.
“Sevens is an easier version to globalise, hence it being the Olympic sport,” he said.
“It is easy on the eye, it is less complicated and it is continuous.
“It is if you will a sampling for the XV version. People, whether they are spectators or players, who get into sevens are likely to move on to the XV version.
“Just as touch rugby leads to an interest in sevens, so the latter feeds an interest in XVs.”
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.