Rugby: NZ's Cup second-biggest success

Rugby World Cup final in 2011 against France. Photo / Doug Sherring

Last year's Rugby World Cup is set to be the second most commercially successful edition of all time, the International Rugby Board said yesterday.

The IRB said from its Dublin headquarters that the tournament in New Zealand was on course to achieve a "net surplus of more than £90 million [$175 million]".

The IRB added that gross commercial revenues achieved of £142 million for the 2011 World Cup were within 3 per cent of the total of the record-breaking France 2007 tournament.

IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said the results were "particularly encouraging given that Rugby World Cup 2007 was hosted at the height of the global economic boom, while Rugby World Cup 2011 was hosted amidst an uncertain economic climate in a smaller domestic marketplace and in a non-European time zone".

The IRB said the tournament, the seventh Rugby World Cup, "looks set to deliver a significant boost to the ongoing development of rugby worldwide", with 92 per cent of the global governing body's profits, used to promote the sport, coming from the World Cup.

New Zealand has long been a rugby union superpower and the All Blacks beat France 8-7 in a tense final in Auckland in October.

But the IRB said the World Cup was also a financial as well as sporting success for the host nation.

It said the 2011 World Cup was the largest event hosted in the country, with more than 1.35 million fans attending 48 matches, with revenue from ticket sales surpassing the $268.5 million target set by organisers.

This, the IRB stated, equated to more than 10 times the gross revenue generated by the next-biggest sporting event hosted by New Zealand, the 2005 British and Irish Lions rugby tour.

The World Cup is also estimated to have boosted economic activity in New Zealand by more than $500 million.

England will host the 2015 World Cup before the tournament breaks new ground by being staged in Japan, not a major rugby nation, in 2019.

Qualification for the 2015 edition starts today when Mexico are at home to Jamaica in the first of 184 matches involving 80 countries.

The full IRB group results for 2011 will be announced in May after the completion of the reporting process to the IRB council.

- AAP