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PARIS - Doping, scrummaging and respect for referees were on the agenda as the rugby World Cup organising committee held a welcoming press conference on Wednesday.
Rugby bosses have come under fire for the standard and consistency of refereeing but the International Rugby Board's referee's manager Paddy O'Brien insisted that the organisers are doing everything in their powers to prevent officiating from being a talking point during the showpiece event.
One area of particular concern has been the scrum.
"We have asked all the referees to call scrums the same way," said O'Brien. "They're going to call 'crouch, touch, pause, engage'."
But while O'Brien acknowledged that officiating needs to improve, he also claimed that it was the responsibility of players and coaches to help the referee by not making his job more difficult.
"We don't want to go the same way that other sports have gone. We have told coaches that when a referee makes a decision, rightly or wrongly, we ask the players to respect them," added O'Brien.
"We've made it quite clear to all teams that we want this to be a tournament where all teams go into it on an equal footing."
There is a lot of concern amongst the organisers that certain influential players use their standing to put pressure on referees but O'Brien promised a zero-tolerance policy.
"We don't want players appealing to touch judges and trying to influence decisions. That's not good for the image of the game," he said.
It was not just refereeing on the agenda, though, as drugs and doping were discussed.
World Cup managing director Mike Miller believes that rugby is leading the world in its anti-doping measures, however, he wasn't giving away too much.
"Now we have a full-time anti-doping department and comprehensive out of competition testing. Players can be tested anywhere and at any time," said the American, who is also chief executive of the IRB.
"We reserve the right to do blood testing. We don't like to give away too much in advance. We like to keep people on their toes. There could be blood testing but there will definitely be urine testing."
Despite these concerns organisers are expecting the World Cup to be a "great festival of rugby" which they say has already caught the public's imagination.
According to Rugby World Cup chairman and IRB boss Syd Millar, 10,000 people watched Australia's first training session, 5000 people came out in Marseille to welcome the All Blacks and there were even 3500 people who went to watch rank outsiders Portugal going through their paces.
"The game has come a long way since the first World Cup in 1987. Then we had 600,000 tickets sold but up to this morning (Wednesday) 2.1 million tickets have been sold," said the former Irish rugby great.
He also said he was expecting four billion television viewers and an excess of A3;90 million ($264.93 million) in profit generated from the tournament, 95 per cent of which will be ploughed back into rugby at all levels.
"I'm looking forward to the bar being raised again from 2003, which was a very successful tournament," he added.
- AFP
