Ireland confident of hosting 2023 World Cup

Ireland are upbeat about their chances of hosting the 2023 World Cup as they gear up for the bid presentation to World Rugby council next week.

Ireland along with France and South Africa will present their World Cup bid to the voting unions in London on Monday and the final decision on the host of the 2023 showpiece event will be announced on 15th November.

Northern Ireland's five main political parties have signed letters of support reaffirming the cross-government pledge to pay the £120million tournament staging fee, easing concerns after the Northern Ireland Executive's collapse. Also Ireland will have an advantage of not hosting any other major tournament during that phase while France is set to stage Olympics in 2024.

Ireland's 900-page bid document charts an economic benefit tipped to run to 1.5billion euros (£1.32billion), with organisers pledging to sell all 2.2million tickets at an overall rate of 30 percent lower than England 2015.

The Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the Kingspan Stadium at Ravenhill in Belfast and Thomond Park in Limerick are the favourites to host the games while a number of football venues are also likely to be added to the list.

The board is also in consultation with architects Wilson Owens Owens, who worked on the London 2012 Olympics and Rugby World Cups 2015 and 2019.

The Irish Rugby Football Union is confident that hosting the 2023 World Cup will help them crack the American market.

"We have put a really, really forceful proposal on the table to Rugby World Cup," said IRFU chief executive Philip Browne.

"If the rugby community is genuine about wanting to expand the sport, if they want to inspire people from other countries as potential hosts, then we believe we've made it easy for them to do that.

"What we'd see as a tripartite partnership has to be put in place, between Ireland 2023 if we win the bid, World Rugby and US Rugby.

"It's about what can we do to increase the footprint of rugby in North America."

Ireland's historic game against New Zealand in Chicago last year saw a record attendance of 62,500 which is the highest for any rugby event in the US.