UPDATE: FRANCE WILL HOST THE 2023 RUGBY WORLD CUP.

WTF just happened? The French last hosted the tournament in 2007, and Paris is already hosting the Summer Olympics in 2024.

It wasn’t even close – France 24, South Africa 15 in the second (and final) round of voting.

Hey Springboks, if you wouldn’t mind, could you raise your game a touch for Saturday’s battle against the French? That would be grand.

Also, the official World Rugby Twitter account has had a stinker:

Anyway, here’s what I originally wrote before the hammer came down…

Feel it, it is here!

Today will see the host of the 2023 Rugby World Cup announced, and while we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves we can’t help but be a little confident.

No, stop it, just play it cool and let the cards fall as they will.

Here’s a few things you should know via the Citizen:

Following an announcement from World Rugby last month, which backed South Africa based on the findings of a bid evaluation committee, the global body’s council had been urged to vote in SA’s favour in what was touted as a more transparent bidding process.

However, the final decision would rest with World Rugby council members who were set to vote at a meeting in London.

Right, now let’s crunch numbers:

So, to put it nice and simply, we need 20 votes.

France and Ireland are our big competition. The stream below goes live at around 3PM, so let’s watch this one unfold.

[source:citizen]