KEY POINTS:
Rugby World Cup 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden has just come back from the 2007 tournament, and is confident New Zealand is on track for hosting the next Cup. He talks to the Herald.
Now you are back from Rugby World Cup 2007, how do you feel about
Rugby World Cup 2011? Are we ahead, behind, or on schedule?
We're quite a considerable way ahead of either France or Australia, which have hosted the last two tournaments, because the International Rugby Board deliberately made the hosting appointment around 18 months earlier.
There are some issues that carry a fair bit of risk in terms of time around construction - Eden Park and AMI Stadium, which are both significant projects - but both of those are on track.
Was seeing the French tournament intimidating?
Intimidating is not the right word, but it is a real reality check. Remembering I've been to a lot of World Cups with cricket and whatnot, it was a real reality check just how big the whole event is going to be and how much detailed planning is necessary across so many different areas.
But I came away with a sense of heightened inspiration or enthusiasm, if it's possible to get more enthusiastic about it, that was the way I felt coming away from France. What an opportunity it is to be hosting the Cup ... the event now is probably even better than the event we thought we were going to be hosting.
How much of a problem for you is the fact that the IRB has delayed its decision on the format of the 2011 tournament? (Whether 16 or 20 teams take part.)
On the three days before that decision, I think on the 27 to 29 November, they are having a major workshop to discuss the whole shape of the international rugby calendar, just to see how the whole thing can be fitted together better. From their point of view it made sense to delay that discussion until the day after that was finished.
It isn't an issue for us at the moment. We have made it clear we need a decision as soon as possible, one way or the other, and they have promised us that that decision will be made on November 30. That sits very comfortably within our timeline.
As for who will come, we will just wait for that. The next important one for us after that will be how the tournament teams are seeded, because in the end our ability to move on is dictated by when we can put a final draw in place. The sooner we can put a draw on the table and allocate venues, the sooner we can get on with the more detailed planning of the thing.
There is quite a lot more to putting on a World Cup than running a rugby tournament. How far advanced is that planning?
That is already well in the front of our thinking. For six months I have been trying to make the point that this is not just a rugby tournament, it is a festival - and it is not a rugby festival, it's a much broader social festival. We have such a great chance to widen the breadth of involvement of people from simply rugby supporters to people from every part of society.
A lot of what we have done over the past six months is move around the regions and focusing on that breadth of opportunity. France just simply served to confirm that that is the right approach.
Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Snedden is adamant the 2011 final will be played at a revamped Eden Park.
The election of John Banks as Auckland's mayor - and his announcement that he did not support a $30 million contribution to the $190 million project - had led to speculation whether Eden Park would be at its projected 60,000 capacity in time.
"I think people, because they haven't seen the thing up and running with stands being torn down and stuff like that, they get a bit nervous about the whole thing," Mr Snedden said.
"But construction was never planned to be started at Eden Park until the end of 2008. There is a Bledisloe Cup game being played there in the first week of August next year."
Funding for the project was "not an issue at all" as the Government had provided contractual underwriting sufficient to ensure the cost of the redevelopment would be covered, Mr Snedden said.
"It is a risk and it's high on our scale in terms of remaining our top priority for supervision over the next four years, but it's something I think at the moment is on track and the recent controversy is a side issue."
Mr Snedden rejected suggestions that Christchurch could host the final if Eden Park for some reason failed to meet the 2011 deadline. He said the southern city did not have the required infrastructure to host the final.
"The International Rugby Board wouldn't allow the tournament to be played in Christchurch if we went to them and said the final has to be played in Christchurch."
