2023 RWC Buildup, Squads, Fixtures 'etc'

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107669#Comment_121107669

>Basics like...drinking water reportedly not available in the stadiums - not to mention a general lack of food and drink options reported

Plenty of drinking water in Marseille. Just you gotta pay through the nose for it.

All in all, suffice to say I'm not impressed with the organisation. It's very French. The second day I was heading to games, the previous day's experience actively ruined my game day, I was not looking forward to it and I was apprehensive all day about the game. Didn't help that the games were shite but still. As a visitor you should be looking forward to the games, there's part of me that dreads it which is not a good sign.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107669#Comment_121107669

sounds very badly organised overall, even regarding the good news :-

Why not scrap the child choir Anthem experiment completly , its not working , trying to fix something good (and important), and just breaking it.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101539#Comment_121101539

I think you just proved my point for me tbh. Try scored with clock in the red, doesnt matter how far in the red.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101638#Comment_121101638

I think they were always going to be in possession as Wales were kicking the ball back to them on the restart.

Now serious questions need to be asked of the two numpties who kicked away possession after that restart, but Williams was brain dead all match imo.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107857#Comment_121107857

The state of the place. Imagine tens of thousands of people descending on Dublin looking for accommodation. Public transport? Stadiums? The Irish world cup bid was a pipe dream, let's be honest.

Pollard on the bench for the Tigers this weekend.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108575#Comment_121108575

You don't need public transport to get to the stadiums in dublin. That's a huge part of the appeal. Don't think we are underserved for hotels either...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108575#Comment_121108575

Housing / Ukraine crisis weren't quite on the radar at the time of the bid to be fair but without any preparation we wouldn't be able to manage it currently. On the flip side - if parts of the economy specifically around accommodation were seeing greater investment from back in Nov 17 we might have both better dealt with the housing crisis and have been better equipped for the Ukraine conflict.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108596#Comment_121108596

Depends where you're coming from. You're certainly not going to be able to rent a car and if you're waking distance from the stadiums you're fighting for the most expensive hotel rooms in Europe.

Presumably the entire tournament wouldn't be held in Dublin, but I don't know what other stadiums are up to standard. All the ones in France are in the 33-80k range. What do we have beside Lansdowne and Croke Park? Semple and PuC are a decent size but are 50% standing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108641#Comment_121108641

Stadiums for the Ireland Bid: https://www.the42.ie/ireland-rugby-world-cup-2023-2-3082804-Nov2016/

AdamD

We're massively underserved for hotels right now (due to unforeseen circumstances), a RWC would be an absolute disaster.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108835#Comment_121108835

had we been given the RWC, we wouldnt have had hotels used as refuge centres as they would all have been booked well in advance. PLus im sure there would have been a monetary guarantee (bond) requirement from WR that suitable accommodation would be available for the RWC.

the knock on effect would have been that we wouldn't have been able to take in as may conflict refugees / or there would be more refugees stay in tent accomodation for longer periods.

pixelburp

This is a slightly redundant tangent though: not least because had we won the hosting of the Rugby WC it would absolutely have kickstarted a new phase of building to provide the accommodation for the expected crowds.

Right now, no: tomorrow we couldn't host a Rugby World Cup 'cos we don't have enough hotels etc.; but given the 7 years we'd have had to build more hotels, houses & facilities for the expected uptick in visitors, we'd be fine come Sept. 2023. Maybe even some long gestating infrastructure projects would have been given a much needed incentive to be worked on.

Jump_In_Jack

We absolutely should bid again for the next available world cup in my opinion. And if we win it this time, and/or next time, it would be like when New Zealand got it (they were such a good team at the time that they deserved to host it regardless of the quality of their stadia or accommodation). Personally think Ireland and Scotland should bid together, and possibly Wales too.

Just checked and it's 2027 Australia, 2031 USA, so we should be starting planning to put in a bid for 2035.

Buer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108575#Comment_121108575

I agree to an extent but the French hosting has been a mess thus far. The match day experience has been awful according to a huge number of people who have attended. They have the infrastructure but have been let down by the resourcing and preparation at the 11th hour, it would appear. But these are items that can be resolved. Hopefully they'll have been given a kick in the ass from all the negative publicity.

I think there would have been fairly meagre attendances for a number of games if in Ireland. Italy vs Namibia and Japan vs Chile both got over 30k in attendance. Australia vs Georgia had over 70k in Paris. I think we'd potentially be looking at half those numbers if we were hosting. A game like Japan vs Chile would potentially be somewhere like Celtic Park in Derry, Nowlan Park in Kilkenny or MacHale Park in Mayo. It would not have been well attended. I think that would have detracted from the tournament as a spectacle.

The finance drives the whole operation though and the proposed revenue of £350m from the French bid was significantly higher than either of the other two bids ultimately.

irelandrover

I was in bordeaux for our game

There were a few issues but nothing major. The fan zone is in the centre and easily accessible. There are some poor views due to trees but it's in a park.

I had no queue to get into the stadium and was in 90 minutes early. My big complaint was there was no tvs around the stadium so we couldn't watch the earlier games.

Trams were packed but were very frequent.

Overall I had a great two days.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121109028#Comment_121109028

Quatar will get a WC before we do. Have to think Italy would also be primed to host by then too. I'd be shocked if we would ever get another chance to host, at least one that's not tied to the UK, and frankly Wales and Scotland can **** right off.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121109254#Comment_121109254

If we could get it with enough time to spare we should be well capable of hosting it, I wouldn't be too dismissive of hosting with Scotland.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058313767/rwc2023-build-up-thread-for-tonga-v-ireland-sat-8pm-rte2-rte-player-ire-itv1-uk#latest

Added a build-up thread for the next day or so, match thread will come soon by @ionadnapokot

snotboogie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108666#Comment_121108666

Fitzgeralds Park is a full on shed and was supposed to be hosting a knock out game with zero renovations. Compared to the French and even South African bids those stadiums are an absolute joke.

pickarooney

Nowlan Park for a world cup... Even if they had miraculously, for the first time ever, managed to complete not one but 10+ building projects on time and on budget, what would we do with all these 40k+ capacity stadiums after the tournament?

It's sad but undeniable that big events like World Cups and Olympics should only be held in countries with the infrastructure and resources to host them and who will actually use the venues afterwards. When you see the state of the facilities a few years after the Olympics in smaller countries it's just a criminal waste of billions of euros.

It would make more sense to have a world cup in Germany, despite nobody there knowing what rugby is.

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110148#Comment_121110148

This is very true. France are using 9 venues, Ireland does not need 9 venues capable of hosting these kinds of matches. The island has 4 or 5 so it makes sense to host with Scotland/Wales rather than alone. These types of tournaments very often have a negative long term impact on hosts, Ireland's property scene is already enough of a basket case without giving charlatans and landlord politicians a 'hurry up and build it anyway to be ready on time' excuse for more poor planning.

sydthebeat

Only 4 of the 13 venues for the 2011 RWC had a capacity of over 30,000.

5 venues were less than 23,000 and 3 required expansion prior to the comp.

We absolutely could host a RWC from a capacity point of view, with a bit of work beforehand.

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110208#Comment_121110208

A fair amount of that capacity is standing terracing. We could host, Im just not sure we should host. I was not convinced that the scale and type of investment (which would have exceeded estimates without a doubt and would have been largely tax payer funded) represented a net good for society, yes great for rugby/sport/hospitality and great craic but as development funding for infrastructure I'm not convinced. Longer terms we don't need that sports capacity.

Ben Bailey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108901#Comment_121108901

If our bid had been successful our building program would have been fecked by COVID. We dodged a bullet on that bid.

Not a great scrum start for Uruguay.

Nice try!

Burkie1203

Brilliant score

ersatz

Nice lines fromUruguay, Jaminet won’t like the replay.

irelandrover

Unexpected but a great try