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 TEIVOVO.COM – INTERNATIONAL 7s
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Wednesday 9 May 2007
Dubai to host 2009 Rugby World Cup 7s
The IRB Council has awarded 2009 Rugby World Cup 7s to the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union. The tournament will be the first to incorporate a women’s competition.
IRB Chairman, Dr Syd Millar made the announcement at the IRB’s meeting of Council in Dublin following a vote that brought to a close the selection process that began in June 2006.
The voting process was managed by independent auditors, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and consisted of two rounds. No clear majority was reached in the first round and therefore the top two; Arabian Gulf and Australia progressed to a second round, with the IRB Council selecting Arabian Gulf as Rugby World Cup 7s 2009 host Union.
“The Council members were extremely impressed with the Arabian Gulf Rugby Union bid and I am sure that Dubai will host a wonderful tournament having staged a highly successful IRB U19 World Championship in 2006,” said Dr Millar.
“The people of Dubai will, of course, embrace the Rugby World Cup 7s, but the same could be said for Australia, Russia, the Netherlands and USA, who all presented a strong case to host the tournament.”
“Dubai has a proven track record of staging major international events and has both the infrastructure and ability to stage a tournament of this scale. There is a strong rugby community within the city and the annual Emirates Airline Dubai 7s has grown to become one of the most popular, colorful and well attended on the IRB World 7s Series calendar, attracting capacity crowds. I am sure that Rugby World Cup 7s in Dubai will be a spectacular tournamen.”
David Skidmore, Chairman of the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union and leader of Dubai’s bid could barely conceal his delight.
“It is wonderful news to be selected as host union. The Arabian Gulf may be one of the smaller unions, but everyone has worked extremely hard on the bid and we are confident that we will deliver a tremendously successful Rugby World Cup 7s tournament in Dubai in 2009," Skidmore said.
“Dubai has a strong history of hosting successful and well attended Rugby 7s tournaments and I am sure that everyone in the city will be extremely excited with today’s news.”
Rugby World Cup 7s 2009 will be the fifth Rugby World Cup 7s tournament. The inaugural tournament was held in Scotland in 1993 with tournaments following in Hong Kong in 1997, Argentina in 2001 and again in Hong Kong in 2005.
“Rugby World Cup 7s 2005, held in Hong Kong, was an outstanding success. A capacity crowd of 120,000 fans attended the three competition days, while the event was broadcast to over 450 million homes, breaking all previous tournament records. Over 10 million hits were recorded on the tournament’s official website and we anticipate Rugby World Cup 7s 2009 being even more successful,” said Dr Millar.
Rugby World Cup 7s 2009 will be the first to include a women’s tournament that will run alongside the men’s competition and will consist of 24 men's and 16 women's teams. The inclusion of a women’s tournament for the first time is an exciting development for the women’s game which is experiencing unprecedented interest following the success of last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
“The concept of two Rugby World Cup 7s tournaments - for men and women - taking place side-by-side in Dubai is a fantastic prospect. The Arabian Gulf Rugby Union really does have a tremendous opportunity to deliver the most successful Rugby World Cup 7s tournament to date and further showcase Rugby 7s’ strong claims for inclusion in the Olympic Games sports programme.”
Voting breakdown
First round
Arabian Gulf 12
Australia 8
Netherlands 0
Russia 2
USA 2
Second round
Arabian Gulf 14
Australia 10
Int'l 7s main page
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