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That would mark 40 years since Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the first RWC, a humble arrangement that has grown into a genuine sporting behemoth.<\/p>\n
Rugby types argue it is now the third biggest sporting event in the world behind the Olympics and football World Cup.<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether that is accurate or not, there is no doubt that it has become big business: a 2027 RWC in Australia would pump $2.5 billion into the economy and attract 200,000 tourists, the tournament bid team says.<\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Wallabies boss demands 'dark side' from players<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Rebels bolters headline fresh Wallabies squad<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Highlanders get big boost for Super Rugby final<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n "We need something like that," Slack told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n "Blind Freddy realises it hasn't been the best few years for whatever reason but a successful, or a competitive, Wallaby team at a home World Cup would be exactly what it needs. Ever since it started I've been a bit afraid of World Cup dominating everything in rugby and everything's about the next four years.<\/p>\n "I said that at the time when we had our first World Cup in 1987, that it could potentially diminish everything in between because we're all aiming four years out. Well, I think I was right but I've just got to suck it up because that's what people in today's world want."<\/p>\n Australia has gone hard and early in an effort to win favour from World Rugby, who will vote on the 2027 bidding rights next year.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The United States has emerged as the biggest threat to Australia and was last week accepted as a bid candidate for 2027 2031 as well as the women's tournament in 2029.<\/a><\/p>\n "The World Cup is a must for rugby," Slack said.<\/p>\n "To be able to have it and host it, on the back of what we saw happen in 2003, it's as they say nowadays, a no brainer."<\/p>\n Slack's reflections on the 1987 tournament are fascinating.<\/p>\n It may seem a "no brainer" now but at the time the decision to stage a football-style, one stop shop tournament was highly controversial as the push towards professionalism clashed with rugby's traditional amateur values.<\/p>\n "We were in a bubble then and I think we sensed we were at the beginning of something pretty special," said Slack, one of the Wallabies' most decorated captains who retired after losing a heartbreaking 1987 semifinal against a Serge Blanco-inspired France.<\/p>\n "Although it was very humble beginnings in 1987, there was an element that OK, this is going to be, in inverted commas, the 'worst of the World Cups.'<\/p>\n "There was a lot of hoo-ha and discussion prior to it about whether we should have a World Cup \u2013 this is in the midst of amateur versus professional and what upside and downside. So it was a bit of a long running debate as to whether it should happen.<\/p>\n "But I think we sensed, once it happened, that we could get into a position of arguably the third biggest sporting event."<\/p>\n Slack joked that Australia's preparations for the 1987 RWC couldn't really be considered thorough and intense given that a match against South Korea at Ballymore was one of the main pillars.<\/p>\n "The benefit was I scored two tries," Slack quipped.<\/p>\n "But Alan Jones was the coach and he sensed, I think, as well, that this is a special moment in rugby and he did say 'OK, we're going to have our camp in Sydney, we're there for six weeks, that six weeks is sacrosanct, everything we're thinking about is rugby.' 'Forget about work, family, just focus on this.'<\/p>\n "We stayed at Camperdown Travelodge or somewhere and trained at Sydney Uni.<\/p>\n "He drove this thing. Without being completely unfair to him, it was a bit one for you and one for the other because he worked during it. He'd started his radio thing so we had to train in the afternoon most of the time because he was on his timetable which didn't exactly help things, in terms of everyone was prepared to do that."<\/p>\n Many All Blacks were famously back at work on Monday after winning the 1987 final against France on a Saturday<\/a> and it was a similar story of endearing amateurism for the Wallabies.<\/p>\n "Some guys were on unpaid leave, some still studying, some got paid leave and others might have given up jobs or been on the dole," Slack said.<\/p>\n "It was much more relaxed \u2013 if things went wrong you just went to work on Monday and were part of the workforce and doing different things.<\/p>\n "I think people try to maintain those elements as much as they can, in a professional rugby sense, but I think it's difficult. We didn't move camp much \u2013 if you played for Queensland, you played for Queensland.<\/p>\n "Nowadays people are playing for different teams all the time and I guess it's harder to establish long-term relationships. The game still has a similar essence but done in different ways now and obviously now there's far more responsibility on a player than there was then. The 1987 World Cup was in many ways the start of that for rugby."<\/p>\n Sign up today to show your support for Australia's bid to host Rugby World Cup 2027!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia's first Rugby World Cup captain remembers preparing for that trailblazing tournament against the 'might' of South Korea, staying at the Camperdown Travelodge and warming […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86455,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86453\/revisions\/86455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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