Australia's chances as sole host look invincible

By WYNNE GRAY and CATHERINE MASTERS

Australia's push to be sole host of next year's Rugby World Cup has gained further momentum on the eve of a crucial meeting in Wales.

The Australians will declare all their stadiums are clean for next year's World Cup when they appear at Wednesday's emergency meeting of tournament directors in Cardiff, where RWC Ltd director Rob Fisher will represent New Zealand.

"We have talked to all the relevant stand authorities in Australia, completing the deals and necessary negotiations on Friday, so we can sign the document to say that we can comply with 100 per cent clean stadiums," an Australian Rugby Union spokesman said yesterday as the delegation to Cardiff left.

In a further blow to New Zealand, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr may be about to sign a deal that could guarantee Australia as sole host. In secret talks with RWC chairman Vernon Pugh, he has offered the full resources of the state government, says the Australian Sunday Telegraph.

New Zealand refused to sign an agreement to be sub-host because it could not deliver advertising-free stadiums or guarantee total RWC control of corporate and hospitality areas.

Representatives from the NZRFU and the main stadiums met last week and agreed to try to lift their present status of 50 to 80 per cent clean, but all are believed to have said 100 per cent was impossible.

NZRFU spokesman Peter Parussini refused to comment on a Herald report that members of the International Rugby Board had said there would need to be top-level resignations in the New Zealand union for it to have any chance of remaining as sub-host of the World Cup.

The Herald also reported there was understood to be disatisfaction within the board at the way NZRFU chairman Murray McCaw and chief executive David Rutherford had handled the issue.

"Why should we respond to unsubstantiated claims," Mr Parussini said. "There are no plans to [resign] because no one's asked. And anyway why should someone resign for obeying the law?"

The union had already responded to the Herald article, however, issuing a statement on Saturday in which it said it "refuted unsubstantiated claims" made in the paper about disatisfaction within the board.

At its most recent meeting, last Thursday, the board "fully endorsed the approach currently being taken" by Mr McCaw and Mr Rutherford, the statement said.

The names of all 10 board members were at the end of the statement.

Sources within the IRB told the Herald they thought salvage chances were just possible if NZRFU chief executive David Rutherford and chairman Murray McCaw stepped down.

Mr Rutherford and Mr McCaw refused to speak to the Herald yesterday, but spokesman Peter Parussini said no one had asked for their resignation and the NZRFU issued a statement on Saturday saying its board fully endorsed their approach.