County Mayo set to benefit if Rugby World Cup comes

READY FOR THE WORLD Pictured at the official launch of Ireland’s bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin last week were bid ambassador Brian O’Driscoll, left, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD, centre, and bid chairman Dick Spring. Pic: Sportsfile

Daniel Carey

MACHALE Park will become ‘an infinitely better venue for GAA’ after 2023 if the Castlebar stadium becomes a Rugby World Cup venue. That’s according to journalist John Fallon, the author of a new book on Connacht rugby.
The Galway native covered various games in England during last year’s Rugby World Cup. He says the ‘potential’ benefit to host cities is ‘phenomenal’, and points to the match between Georgia and Argentina which he attended in Gloucester as an example.
“Gloucester was bursting at the seams. There were queues of people waiting outside in the hope of buying a ticket. It was massively oversubscribed … every venue was sold out. You had all these fan zones nearby, where nearly as many people went to,” he recalls.
“A huge proportion of the main stand was just [reserved for] media … You don’t just get people from World Rugby in it; you get dozens of people from around the world. And they all have to be accommodated and fed … There’ll be nothing cheap and free at the ground. But the inward money that comes to it is crazy.”
Some have expressed worry about whether Ireland’s public transport system can cope with an influx of rugby tourists. But Fallon, the managing editor of Media West (Ireland), recalls ‘racing for the last train’ from the Olympic Stadium in London after he had done his post-match interviews – “Not everything has to be 24/7”. Hosting the Rugby World Cup ‘will stretch things to the limit’ in Ireland, he says, ‘but it’s achievable’.
Eight of the 12 potential host stadiums named in the Irish bid last week belong to the GAA. Some GAA members fear facilitating the competition, but Fallon notes that Croke Park’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup final would bring huge level of ‘exposure’ and ‘esteem’ for the Association. The Sportsground in Galway was ‘never’ a runner to host Rugby World Cup matches, he says,  but perhaps a ‘huge game’ involving Connacht could be played at Pearse Stadium or MacHale Park in the future.
“I think if the country gets behind it, it’d be phenomenal,” concludes Fallon, author of ‘Connacht: The Team That Refused To Die’. “And I’m sure it will leave a rugby legacy, but that would be so minuscule compared to the [general] impact it would have … Hopefully it does come to pass.”