Rugby: Bean counters to decide where 2023 World Cup is played

France, Ireland and South Africa are bidding to host the 2023 World Cup.

Convention is going to be broken in choosing who should host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with an independent evaluation process having been assigned the task of recommending a preferred bidder.

The three countries bidding - France, Ireland and South Africa - have all submitted their final bids, been to New Zealand and other countries to directly present their case and there fate will be determined by a World Rugby Council vote in November.

Except, unlike in previous years, World Rugby has asked two independent bodies - an accountancy firm and sports marketing group - to evaluate the three bids and then recommend which one they see as the strongest.

The criteria by which they will determine 'strongest' isn't known but given the World Cup is World Rugby'smajor source of income, it's a reasomable guess that revenue will be somewhere high on the agenda.

NZR chief executive Steve Tew confirmed that it was highly likely that New Zealand's two votes would be cast in line with the recommendation and that he suspected most other nations would probably take the same stance.

When New Zealand won the 2011 hosting rights in 2005, their bid was independently evaluated, but no recommendation was made to the voting members about.

For that tournament, New Zealand was up against Japan and South Africa and the World Cup came here largely because of the strength of the relationships formed.

Former NZR chief executive Chris Moller and former chairman Jock Hobbes travelled the world between 2003 and 2005, wining and dining voting members, selling New Zealand's bid to them.

It was a hugely successful strategy in what was a politicised process back then when there was the ability to trade for votes - with France winning the votes of Scotland and Wales back in 2007 by offering the two Celtic nations the opportunity to host games.

Tew says the shift to this new process of an independent group making a recommendation was heavily debated before agreement was reached.

And on the theme of World Cups, he said the decision to organise an official public celebration of the Black Ferns World Cup victory almost three weeks after they were crowned champions was not a case of reacting late.

When the All Blacks won the 2015 World Cup in England, there was a victory parade within 24 hours of them returning home.

But because of the non -professional status of the Black Ferns, many of their players opted to stay on in Europe and travel.

"We have been waiting for the team to get back into the country," he said. "We still don't have them all back. If we had a parade when the team first came home, it would have been with a small team as given the circumstances, many of the players chose to stay on in Europe and have some time there."

Tew said it was probable that in the wake of what happened this year, it may be that at future tournaments, the Black Ferns fall into line with the All Blacks and are all asked to return home on the same flight.

He also revealed that the investigation into whether there is any need to have another investigation into the conduct of All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith last year is ongoing, but there is no deadline for any work to be completed.

New Zealand Rugby is trying to determine, on the back of media revelations that came out in the week of the first Bledisloe Cup test, whether the initial investigation into Smith's infamous toilet tryst last year, was aware of all the relevant facts it needed to be.