World Cup: where next?

Where next indeed. An announcement for the venue of the next World Cup was due in May... then delayed until this week... and now there will be no announcement until next year.

Its not just that this year's tournament has taken the bar to a whole new level - it seems that the IRB just were not completely happy with any of the bids from USA, Kazakhstan and Samoa (New Zealand withdrew). In fact they have reopened bidding, so any Union can now bid to host the event.

At this stage it looks like the bid will be for a 12-team event - but while USA seemed the best bet to host, it seems that where it will be is anyone's guess now - but presumably not Europe