Rugby boss on why NZ will struggle to host World Cup again

New Zealand will struggle to host the Rugby World Cup again - that's the inference from rugby boss Mark Robinson.

While the New Zealand Rugby chief executive didn't state that outright, he made it clear this country could be left behind as the tournament becomes more of a world force.

New Zealand won the inaugural 1987 and 2011 tournaments as hosts and Robinson told Newstalk ZB's Elliott Smith that rugby would "dearly love" to have any world class event here.

With Europe hosting the men's and women's tournaments in 2023/25, and Australia and the USA likely to follow, 2035/37 presents the next World Cup hosting bid opportunity for New Zealand.

Robinson said it had not been a topic of specific conversation.

"I guess it comes up in passing, but not a formal discussion point," he said.

"It's really interesting, the stage of the World Cup, the size of the tournament, for a country like New Zealand to be able to host it.

"[If you look at] Government support in Australia, the size of stadia, the expectation World Rugby has to drive revenue to reinvest in the game across the world, it will be really challenging for New Zealand. We'll have to be very creative as a country if we are ever to broach that subject again.

"Look how big France is going to be in the revenue generation, what's been talked about in Australia, and we know in America the size of stadium and the massive commercial grunt behind sport.

"The context and expectation is shifting all the time. We'll keep it on the radar but we'll have to be very innovative to bring something like that to New Zealand in the future."

Meanwhile Robinson confirmed that plans for a global Nations League were alive again, and in reasonably good health.

NZR bosses travel to Dublin early next month for "a lot of meetings to re-engage on that matter." He said there was "positive sentiment" among the rugby bigwigs of various nations.

"There is good progress related to scheduling, we've had some good progress in recent months," he said.

"We've got to look at commercial models, and we're passionate about the need for emerging nations to have greater opportunities, to create depth and breadth, so more and more teams are competitive at the World Cup, so it is world class.

"Even over the last six months, it feels like the top six or eight teams can beat each other on any given day.

"It would be great to think that in another few years we have 10 or 12 teams who we factor into a group like that."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission