New Zealand rugby's final push for the 2011 World Cup will be enveloped in a shroud of silence after its bosses refused to speak to the media during a whistle-stop visit to Hong Kong yesterday.
'Our policy is not to speak to the media on this tour,' said New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Chris Moller. 'I regret I cannot give you the time.'
Moller and New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) president Jock Hobbs were in Hong Kong for a day to court the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU), mainly its Hong Kong-based secretary-general Jamie Scott.
New Zealand, South Africa and Japan are in the race to host the 2011 World Cup. This is the first time an Asian Union is bidding for the tournament. Hong Kong was the second leg of a two-week, 10-country world trip in which the Kiwi officials are trying to canvas votes. The 24 council members on the International Rugby Board will meet in Dublin on November 17 to decide the 2011 World Cup host in a secret ballot.
The Asian governing body, has one vote. A decision was taken at the last council meeting to vote for Japan. The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union has also indicated it would be willing to host one pool and a quarter-final match if Japan was to win the bid. 'They gave a positive and very persuasive presentation,' said Scott after a 45-minute meeting with Hobbs and Moller. Also present at the meeting were Peter Duncan, the immediate past-president of the ARFU; John Molloy, chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, and its executive director Allan Payne.
It is understood New Zealand has spent $19 million on its bid to win back the World Cup for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1987. The New Zealand Government and the union are sharing the costs. Before leaving New Zealand last week, Moller told the Kiwi media that 'very significant' progress had been made in two key areas - boosting Eden Park's capacity to 60,000 and presenting clean stadiums free of advertising and corporate box holders. This latter issue was one reason why New Zealand lost its co-hosting rights to the 2003 World Cup, later solely hosted by Australia. The expansion of Eden Park will only happen if New Zealand win the rights to host 2011 World Cup.
