6 Mar 2007

The IRB World Cup chairman answers criticisms

10:23 am on 6 March 2007

The International Rugby Board's World Cup chairman, Dr Syd Millar, has answered criticisms that they don't do enough for rugby in the Pacific region.

He says the IRB expects to make about 161 million US dollars from the Rugby World Cup and spend over 41 million dollars of that on performance initiatives between tournaments.

Dr Millar says while around 35 million dollars will be spent on the professional unions the IRB is also boosting its spending in the Pacific.

"We've been criticised for doing nothing in the islands. we've done an enormous amount of money into the islands to produce tournaments, they have a provincial tournament now going, they have a six nations going, they have a huge amount of money for performance initiatives but certainly and that is why we must generate the money from Rugby World Cup it's our only cash card that goes back into rugby."