Brett Gosper believes USA could bid for 2027 RWC

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper believes this year's Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco could spark an enhanced interest in the sport across America culminating in a potential bid for the 2027 RWC.

San Francisco's iconic AT&T Park baseball stadium will host the games from July 20-22 and this Wednesday marks 100 days until the seventh-edition of the tournament.

Gosper told AFP in an interview that ticket sales for the three-day event had already reached the 60k mark and World Rugby is anticipating a sell-out opening day to the event.

NBC television will broadcast the World Cup Sevens, and in recent years has begun live broadcasts of English Premiership rugby and the Six Nations.

Gosper believes July’s tournament in California can be a “game-changer” for rugby in the United States.

“It’s something that can ignite the sport in the US,” he told AFP. “We know there is latent support for rugby in the United States.

“So seeing rugby almost normalised in an American context, in an iconic American stadium, with free-to-air coverage on NBC television, promoted by NBC, I think will be quite a game-changer for the sport.

“We’re realistic. It’s only three days. And you can’t change the world in three days. But you can light something and create a detonator for greater things later. It will give people more confidence to host more events in America.”

- ‘Sooner rather than later’ -
That something could conceivably be a bid for rugby’s greatest tournament, the World Cup.

Gosper is confident that a bid for the 2027 RWC is by no means outside the realms of possibility.

“There is a general belief across the people running the sport that America’s time will come, probably sooner rather than later,” Gosper said.

“We know that we’ve got a World Cup in Japan in 2019, we’re going to France in 2023. Is 2027 a possibility? I don’t think that’s out of the question.

“They’ll have to go some to get there. But there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be candidates in 2027.”

(Credit: AFP)