Japan: World Rugby boss praises 'spectacular hosts' ahead of RWC 2019 kick off

W/S Start of opening press conference of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Tokyo
SOT, Brett Gosper, Chief Executive Officer, World Rugby/Rugby World Cup: "Beyond the battle for the Webb Ellis Cup [rugby world cup trophy], we're hopeful of a few rankings upsets as we always are. It may come from Fiji, may come from the USA, and of course we're seeing that the hosts are rising nicely and are in good form. Would we see another 'Brighton miracle' [when Japan beat South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup]? And actually I'm not sure we should ever call a Japanese win again a 'miracle'; it's far more expected. The emerging teams are telling us that they're the best prepared that they've ever been for a rugby world cup. And World Rugby has invested 60 million pounds in qualified teams outside the Six Nations and SANZAR. And this combined with the most equitable match schedule we've had will provide the best possible springforward. And now it's down to those teams on the day to perform."
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SOT, Brett Gosper, Chief Executive Officer, World Rugby/Rugby World Cup: "You only need to visit the host cities or turn on TV or your social media over the last few days to see that this tournament is going to be very very big and hugely popular. We've seen how the teams have been greeted with a kind of rugby mania. The local cities and towns are embracing the teams with huge passion. And I think that's going to be one of the real differences between this world cup and previous world cups in terms of atmosphere; Japan are already proving to be spectacular hosts."
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SOT, Brett Gosper, Chief Executive Officer, World Rugby/Rugby World Cup: "So short answer [regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional rugby union], in the elite game, exceptional findings occasionally of, but no systemic problem in terms of, and very confident of our drug testing programme."
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SOT, Brett Gosper, Chief Executive Officer, World Rugby/Rugby World Cup: "I'm sure that going out of your way to communicate and find your best for your player sin payer welfare probably has the knock on effect of increasing any issues that there might be legally in the future and so on. But genuinely, we go after better levels of player welfare to reduce injury rates for the good of the players; to attract more people into the sport, and to be able to say this sport is getting safer and not more dangerous. So we are driven by the player welfare and if that also puts us in a stronger, firmer, more robust legal position we're happy with that too."
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SOT, Alan Gilpin, World Rugby COO and Head of Rugby World Cup: "We've worked hard through [Akira] Shimazu San and the organising committee to make sure that the host cities and particularly those around team camps understand that the players have tattoos from their own countries and cultures. So we don't see it as an issue and we're delighted that the teams that are here are respectful and embracing those cultural differences. We're equally as delighted that the host cities and their hosts understand the position of the players."
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SOT, Brett Gosper, Chief Executive Officer, World Rugby/Rugby World Cup: "Referees and match officials are very aware that we're very strict on this area [of players respecting the match officials] and I would also like to concur, it's not something that we like to see on the field. And we can remind and have reminded management in emails that have gone out prior to say that this is not something we would like to see. So we would be supporting the referees in any action that they took to prevent that from happening on the field; we'd be backing them up 100 percent."
M/S Webb Ellis Cup - the rugby world cup trophy
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SCRIPT
World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper praised Japan for already proving to be "spectacular hosts" of the 2019 Rugby World Cup ahead of the tournament's kick off on Friday. Gosper made the comments in Tokyo, Tuesday, at the opening press conference of rugby union's showpiece event.
"I think that's going to be one of the real differences between this world cup and previous world cups in terms of atmosphere; Japan are already proving to be spectacular hosts," he stated.
Gosper also expressed his hope that some of the tournament's underdogs would spring a few surprises in matches against rugby's traditional superpowers, stressing that financing and match scheduling had been designed to help Tier 2 nations perform at the highest level possible.
"It may come from Fiji, may come from the USA, and of course we're seeing that the hosts are rising nicely and are in good form," he said.
The head of World Rugby also stressed that his organisation has detected no systematic doping in top tier rugby. "In the elite game, [there are] exceptional findings occasionally of [doping], but no systemic problem in terms of, and very confident of our drug testing programme."
The issue of doping in rugby hit the headlines recently after 2018 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, South Africa wing Aphiwe Dyantyi, tested positive for performance enhancing substances in early July. The player himself has pleaded his innocence.
The 2019 Rugby World Cup kicks off on Friday when hosts Japan take on Russia in Pool A at Tokyo Stadium. The official tournament organisers say that over 96 percent of all tickets have been sold as 400,000 fans continue to arrive in Japan from around the world.