Wairarapa may host a Rugby World Cup team

If Wairarapa plays its cards right the region could be a team HQ to one of the 20 squads competing in the upcoming 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Yesterday, former New Zealand cricket international and Rugby New Zealand 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden told an audience gathered at a business breakfast held at the Copthorne Solway in Masterton that hosting international teams was a definite, though not guaranteed, chance for provincial centres, including Wairarapa.
"The regions will have their opportunity to grab their part of the Rugby World Cup," he said at the Wairarapa Chamber of Commerce event.
Snedden, a lawyer by profession, began by listing his organisational and diplomatic credentials, recounting experiences dealing with terrorist threats in Pakistan, striking players and defaulted matches in Kenya as former New Zealand Cricket boss, "it was one disaster after another".
These skills made him a natural pick as chief organiser of the next RWC. "I think the Government was looking for someone who could cancel the Rugby World Cup," he joked of his high-profile 2006 appointment.
He said his role in the lead-up to 2011 was to facilitate New Zealander's grassroots involvement in the event with a festive focus beyond rugby that could turn the country into a "four-million person stadium".
Illustrating the point, Snedden summoned memories of Wairarapa football legend Sir Brian Lochore, who coached the All Blacks to victory in the inaugural 1987 fixture.
"BJ took the All Blacks and billeted them around Wairarapa the idea was to create a genuine connection between the team and the heartland.
"I think it worked in both directions, for the players it took them out of their cocoon & it opened their eyes to how people were relating to them and it gave the players great strength."
Snedden said he hadn't "a political bone in his body" but praised the Labour Government's proactive stance in locking down the bid to host the cup from more well-resourced and globally better-positioned countries like South Africa and Japan.
Yesterday, a "Putting Rugby First" report, co-authored by lawyer Quentin Smith, chairman of English Premiership club Sale, criticised the IRB's decision to award New Zealand the cup. The report, described as "superficial" by New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew, said the IRB was undemocratic and unrepresentative of the sport, and rugby was stuck in a "ghetto" by failing to become a truly global sport and that putting New Zealand before Japan was an example of how rugby is failing to take advantage of Asian markets.
"It's been 1000 days since we secured the bid, it's 1161 till kick-off, that's 163 Mondays time's ticking," Snedden said.
His speech comes as the bulldozers begin chugging diesel in the redevelopment of Eden Park and qualifying rounds start in the Caribbean nations in anticipation of an event estimated to cost the IRB $128m with a total cost to the Government and New Zealand Rugby shaping up near the $310m mark.
Sneddon said Rugby New Zealand 2011 is a 50/50 joint venture between the Government and New Zealand Rugby and would be relying on ticket sales for revenue in lieu of lucrative broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals the organisation expected to return $280m in ticket sales, at a stretch, but had nevertheless committed to making pre-quarter-final matches accessible to ordinary rugby fans by keeping prices affordable, he said.
The French 2007 World Cup drew huge television viewing figures cumulatively estimated at four billion sets of eyes, an international focus Snedden aims to seize upon.
"Those TV audiences are not going to change imagine the profile from around the world," he said.
He called the tournament a "unique leveraging opportunity" and said "the chance of a small nation hosting such a big event again is diminishing".
"It's incredibly important that we have a uniquely New Zealand thumbprint on this event."
A global media influx meant an army of reporters who would use their downtime to reflect on the charms, or otherwise, of New Zealand, it's people and its hosting capabilities.
"With all that media it's an amazing opportunity & and risk, we've got to get it right."
Snedden didn't shy away from pointing out the dangers and whimsical fortunes inherent in hosting such a huge event but leavened this with some wry moments of humour.
"It wasn't until (2003 RWC hosts) Australia enticed Robbie Deans across the ditch that they recovered (from hosting the event) & that was last Saturday," he said referring to the AB's humiliating loss to the Wallabies at the weekend.
The 2005 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand was a blueprint for the way the 2011 World Cup should be staged hinging as it did on positive interaction between supporters and locals outside a strict focus on the game itself.
In light of New Zealand's upset loss to France in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup Snedden said "we cannot afford to direct this tournament at the All Blacks".
He said a good tournament would be founded on parochial self-esteem and positive international perceptions. True to form Snedden wound up the talk with characteristic drollness.
"This can unite New Zealand in a way that nothing else can unite us apart from the National Party."
Should an act of God level Westpac Stadium, Mangatainoka's newly-refurbished 100-seater grandstand is first on the list of alternative venues, Snedden said afterwards.