Bernard Lapasset is certain that hosts will stage an 'extraordinary' Rugby World Cup tournament
International Rugby Board’s (IRB) chairman, Bernard Lapasset, has expressed his confidence that the 2011 Rugby World Cup’s (RWC) hosts, New Zealand, will stage an ‘extraordinary’ RWC event. He made this statement on Monday, September 5.
The 2011 rugby’s showpiece tournament will begin at Eden Park, Auckland on Friday, September 9. 20 teams are participating in this mega event, which are further categorised in four pools, which are named Pool A, Pool B, Pool C and Pool D.
The Springboks are the defending champions and are placed in Pool D, while the hosts, All Blacks, are placed in Pool A of the 2011 RWC.
New Zealand, the winners of the Inaugural RWC title in 1987, are hosting the Seventh RWC tournament.
“Not just the team, not just the fans, but all four million New Zealanders are behind the World Cup and it will be a very successful tournament," said Lapasset. He further added, “I think it will be a very extraordinary competition, a very great event in New Zealand because the whole country is behind it.”
Lapasset, has also commented on the role of the New Zealand Government in facilitating the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and tournament organisers on putting together Rugby’s premier tournament. He said, “There has been extraordinary government support, they have done the required work in the stadia, the roads, Auckland airport.”
Providing the updates regarding the sales of tickets, Lapasset confirmed that the IRB’s target for the 2011 RWC ticket sales is 1.6 million tickets, which is a million short of their 2007 RWC. He expressed his confidence that the ticket sales target is easily reachable. He added that the 20,000 RWC tickets have been re-imbursed to the ticket holders, following the forced change in venue earlier.
The tournament organisers, NZRU and New Zealand government, moved 2011 RWC fixtures from Christchurch to other venues following the devastating earthquake in February, earlier this year.
Lapasset has denounced the fears of another earthquake in New Zealand. He said, “The experts (seismologists) are not expecting anything as significant (during the tournament), so we are reassured by that.”
Commenting on foreign fans, Lapasset added that they are expecting over 60,000 fans from across the globe to attend this world event. He added that they have projected the rise of foreign fans to reach the mark of 100,000. He said, “We are definitely going to go past the 100,000 mark because there are going to be 10-20,000 extra Australian visitors.”
The 2011 RWC will kick start with an opening ceremony, which will be followed by the All Blacks and Tongan encounter.
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