South Africa leading race to host 2023 Rugby World Cup

South Africa have emerged as clear favourites to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The nation has been named as the recommended bid that World Rugby will vote on when they meet on November 15. They are ahead of 2007 hosts France and Ireland, who have never had the Cup and were the bookies’ favourites.

Following visits by the technical review group, made up of a 20-plus panel which assessed and scored each of the bids on five criteria, the South African plan has emerged the best.

The technical group looked at finance and tournament guarantees, venues and host cities, tournament infrastructure, vision and concept, and tournament organisation and schedule.

In an effort by World Rugby to be transparent, this is the first time the process of choosing a host country has seen the publication of a technical report.

Ireland were hoping to join the list of countries to have hosted the tournament but there have been concerns over the size of stadia in their bid.

The French attempted to secure the recommendation with a promise of a bigger surplus, which would help the worldwide game.