The bidding process for the Rugby World Cup (RWC) is expected to be overhauled in the wake of the controversy that accompanied France's shock victory over South Africa and Ireland to host the 2023 event in a secret ballot last month.
World Rugby was left in a humiliating position after the governing body's council voted against its board, who had recommended that South Africa be nominated as hosts following an independent evaluation report.
World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper announced the review after admitting last month's process had left the council "open to what is a perceived contradiction that doesn't look tidy".
Gosper suggested it was highly likely that the board's policy recommending a host would be scrapped, while the use of secret ballots and the two-week gap between the announcement of the independent evaluation and the vote taken by World Rugby's council would also come under scrutiny.He revealed that World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and his deputy Agustin Pichot had "not been happy" to inherit the board's policy recommending a nomination when they were elected last year and had looked at changing it.
"There are parts of the process that we will probably change next," said Gosper.
"To be fair on Bill and Gus, when they arrived on the scene, they found that and they weren't happy with that.
"But because we had embarked on a system, there were certain countries that were really keen that we were not to change one element of," he added.
"In the end we felt that was probably the right route to take. To change course halfway through the process was going to be uncomfortable for all sorts of reasons."
Gosper said the process had produced "three extraordinary candidates and some real certainty financially" but conceded the rejection of the board's recommendation had undermined it as the council were attracted to the financial strength of France's bid.
"It has been by far the best system ever run but unfortunately it has been a little bit overshadowed by the contradiction or the perceived contradiction by the Rugby World Cup board - which looks at it in terms of the execution of the tournament - and the council, which looks at it in terms of the interests of the unions they are representing," Gosper added...