LONDON – Rugby World Cup Limited has recommend England to the International Rugby Board Council to host Rugby World Cup 2015 and Japan to stage the tournament in 2019, at the expense of South Africa and fellow bidders Italy.
The IRB Council will meet in Dublin on July 28 to finalise the hosting nations.
South Africa, which hosted and won RWC 1995 and who were recrowned world champions in 2007 in France, were seen as strong candidates for re-hosting one of the RWCs up for tender.
“We are very disappointed not to have won the board’s recommendation but we have not given up,†said Mark Alexander, deputy president of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and chairman of the bid committee.
In making the decision for 2019, the RWCL Board said it “believes that a Rugby World Cup in Japan would provide a gateway to the further development and expansion of the game in Asia, reaching out to new young fans and providing a superb spectacle for the sportâ€.
The 2011 Rugby World Cup, which attracts tens of thousands of international visitors to the host country, will be held in New Zealand.
