Rugby: Olympic hope may cost Sth Africa cup

South Africa's bid for the 2015 or 2019 Rugby World Cup will this week be sacrificed on the altar of the game's greatest desire, entry into the Olympics.

The full IRB Council is set to ratify the recommendation of the World Cup committee that England should host the tournament in 2015 and Japan four years later.

England, because of its enormous financial capacity, was always banker for the 2015 event. The IRB needs a whopping financial bonanza in 2015.

But the reason Japan will win the vote for 2019 ahead of South Africa is the issue of rugby in the Olympic Games, a dream the IRB has had for the better part of 50 years.

The decision in favour of Japan becoming the first country outside the IRB's traditional powerhouse nations to host a World Cup is likely to swing the large, highly significant Asian vote in the Olympics behind rugby's cause.

It is an overwhelming priority of the IRB to see rugby, in the form of Sevens, included for the first time at an Olympics.

One IRB insider said last week: "The implications of rugby being accepted in the Olympics are absolutely massive, simply incalculable. Calling yourself an Olympic sport opens so many doors. Nothing would be done to imperil that potential."

It means that, despite the three billion rand ($600,000) the South Africans have invested in their bid, it will cut little ice when the fullIRB Council meets in Dublin on Wednesday to make a final decision.

England and Japan will most likely be confirmed as the hosts and South Africa will face the prospect of, at the very least, a 28-year gap between World Cups.

There is some justification for the IRB's position. To develop as a true world sport, rugby needs to gain entry to the Olympics. For in its Sevens form, lesser rugby nations such as Kenya, Japan and South Korea, with proper preparation and professional expertise, compete significantly in such a tournament.

Under professionalism, the widening of the chasm between the traditional rugby-playing countries and nations such as Canada, the US, Fiji and Samoa - has alarmed many in the game. There is no way a full XV-a-side competition could be held in the Olympics and offer the non-traditional countries a reasonable hope of success.

But Sevens is different and it would surely make a magnificent spectacle.

Olympic bosses are expected to decide this October whether to include Sevens for the 2016 Games. A decision this week to give the 2019 Rugby World Cup to Japan would be timely indeed.

Thus the South African bid is expected to fail. But IRB insiders suggest the South Africans should look in their own backyard for another reason for their failure.

The way ticket prices were so grossly distorted by the host nation for the recent British and Irish Lions tour went down like a lead balloon in official IRB circles.