The International Rugby Board (IRB) is undecided about the number of teams it will have in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, IRB chairman Syd Millar said today.
The IRB has been considering reducing the number of teams in the tournament from 20 to 16 but there has been an outcry from the smaller nations, many of which “voted” on the pitch for the present format with some fine performances and upset wins.
“No decision has been made. We will review it and make sure to get it right,” Millar told a news conference.
“Every World Cup should improve on the last one and this one has. New Zealand tendered on the basis that there would be 20 teams,” he said after the weekend’s quarter-finals.
“We will review it after the World Cup. No decision has been made,” said Millar, who reviewed the tournament.
Millar proceeded to make a case for leaving things as they are when he praised the Pacific island nations in particular for their contribution to a fine, very well attended tournament.
“The developing unions, like Tonga, Samoa and Georgia, produced extraordinary performances, proving investments have been made in money and personnel,” Millar said.
“The surprising results are good for the competition and good for the game.”
The IRB has invested money in the unions of such nations to develop the game there but the teams they sent to the tournament did so on a shoe string in some cases.
“We are spending 30 million pounds ($A68 million) each year. We look after them as far as development is concerned,” Millar said of IRB funding.
“As far as them playing in tournaments, that is not for us to say,” he added as if to fend off potential questions on the thorny issue of where to put Argentina in terms of a top level annual competition.
“The Six and Tri-Nations run their tournaments, not us. The only way to improve the (World Cup) competition is to get (the smaller nations) in these tournaments.
“We can’t do much about that other than put up new competitions to raise them to the next level as they need to play in a bigger arena.”
Millar praised hosts France for staging an engaging and exciting tournament.
“To date it has been a marvellous festival of rugby football, not just a tournament,” Millar said.
“The population of France have joined in to make this a marvellous occasion,” the former Ireland international said.
“We are very happy. This justifies our decision to give France the World Cup. Attendance is well up and we are breaking records.
“But what’s most important is what happens on the field and in general we have had a marvellous festival.
“There have been some surprising results, it’s been interesting”.
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