CT Sevens SARU's 2023 showcase

The Cape Town leg of the Sevens World Series will be the ideal vehicle for the South African Rugby Union to showcase their ability to host the 2023 World Cup.

Earlier this month SARU confirmed its interest in bidding for the 2023 15-a-side World Cup, following the announcement of the tender process by World Rugby.

SARU CEO Jurie Roux, speaking at the media briefing where they confirmed the decision that the SA leg of the Sevens World Series would be moving to the Cape Town Stadium for four years from December, said hosting a successful event in the Mother City would be a "major tick in the box" for their 2023 bid.

Roux also explained that World Rugby wanted a new look for the Sevens World Series and one of the major criteria was "global iconic destinations" to showcase the new Olympic sport of Sevens.

"What better than a world-class stadium, in a world-class city in the shadow of a World Heritage site in Table Mountain," Roux said, when asked about the decision for move the SA leg from Port Elizabeth to the purpose-built stadium in the suburb of Greenpoint.

"They [World Rugby] said: 'Thank you very much, that is exactly what we wanted'.

"The iconic status [of Cape Town] had a lot to do with it - it was a very specific criteria [from World Rugby]."

Roux said there was a tender process and the very first criteria is an 'iconic city' and that had a massive weighting.

"It would have been stupid to push another city forward," the SARU boss said, adding: "We would have had a tough battle up against other destinations [around the world] if we did not put forward a bid that not only met their [World Rugby's] criteria, but also the criteria of the sponsors."

And, it is an handy vehicle to push the SARU bid to host the 2023 World Cup in the 15-a-side game.

"We have to prove that we can handle - in terms of accommodation, in terms of logistics, in terms of staging an event, with 45,000 to 50,000 spectators on a day," Roux said, when asked how the Cape Town Sevens could help SARU.

"This will be a major tick in the box, so it is very, very important to us.

"Cape Town will be one of the showcases - along with the Rugby Championship and other international matches."

Roux said there will be a significant change in how they present those Test matches and how they go about it in order to tick the boxes.

"We are going to have a tough fight with the other unions [also tendering]," he said of a battle that will see them go up against the likes of Ireland, Italy, the United States, Canada and Argentina - although there are likely to be more additions before the June deadline for unions to submit an expression of interest.

Roux said their first focus is on December, to prove that they can meet the requirements and host a major event.

"We must utilise whatever we do to prove we can host an event in our country."

By Jan de Koning

@rugby365com