Rugby: Shock RWC 2023 rugby vote democracy in action

New Zealand rugby boss Steve Tew says democracy is alive and well following the vote to award France the 2023 World Cup.

The World Rugby Council disregarded the recommendation of an evaluation report to hand the tournament to South Africa.

A secret vote by member nations instead saw France, which hosted the 2007 World Cup, beat South Africa 24-15 in a second round.

Tew told Radio Sport New Zealand's three votes went to South Africa as previously signalled. To some it would look odd that the vote went against the recommendation but that was democracy.

"People can speculate on that all they like. There were three good bids. South Africa will be disappointed and we share their disappointment."

France respected New Zealand's open stance on the vote and he was hopeful Ireland did as well.

Very few countries were open about who they were voting for, said Tew.

However, sources have told French sports daily L'Equipe which votes went to France. In the first round, France got 18 votes: Scotland (3), Italy (3), Japan (2), Georgia (1), Romania (1), and the following confederations - Africa (2), South America (2), Europe (2), Asia (1) and Oceania (1).

South Africa got 15 votes and Ireland, 8.

In the second round, six of the Irish votes went to France: England (2 of 3), Canada (1), United States (1) and the North American confederation (1).

Former Springboks were devastated by the decision. Ex-playmaker Joel Stransky, who played in the Springboks' 15-12 win over the All Blacks in the 1995 final, labelled World Rugby an old boys' club.

"One has to ask the question, why has the vote gone against the recommendation when most of the unions said they would vote with the recommendation?" said Stransky.

"It's bitterly disappointing and quite surprising.

"You can only imagine the lobbying that has gone on behind the scenes and the one thing that it does fix in my mind is that it is an old boys' club still making decisions at World Rugby."

World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont defended the council's decision, saying it wasn't a repudiation of the independent audit. Members were not bound to vote in accordance with the final evaluation, which had been rubbished by both France and Ireland.

"We had three outstanding host candidates, who raised the bar and overwhelmingly demonstrated that they were all capable of hosting an exceptional Rugby World Cup," Beaumont said.

Japan will host the next World Cup in 2019.