SA Rugby's Mark Alexander addresses concerns over 2031 World Cup in the US

SA Rugby will abide by and support any future decisions made by World Rugby regarding the hosting of the 2031 Rugby World Cup in the US, according to the administrative organisation’s president, Mark Alexander.

The world champions, the Springboks, are set to defend their title in 2027 at the World Cup in Australia. However, the next iteration of the showpiece event is scheduled to take place four years later in the US, in what remains a considerable gamble for rugby’s international governing body.

Relations between South Africa and the US have become strained in recent months, due to the policies and utterances expressed by president Donald Trump. The US president has continued to assert that South Africa’s white population is at risk of genocide.

On Thursday, another diplomatic row erupted after Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social that South Africa – a member of the supranational organisation – would be uninvited to next year’s G20 summit, to be hosted by the US in Miami. South Africa, this past weekend, hosted the G20 summit in Johannesburg. The event that Hunt snubbed.

Asked at the announcement of the partnership between SA Rugby and Samsung on Thursday in Fourways, Johannesburg, about any concerns regarding the US hosting the tournament in the future, Alexander proceeded – with caution.

“I must be very careful what I say now,” Alexander said, “because I am also an executive board member of World Rugby.

“World Rugby has made the decision to go there and we will support the decision that has been made, but we are concerned regarding the delivery of it. We’ve got a task team put together, on which Rian (Oberholzer, SA Rugby CEO) is sitting. They are making sure that what we are implementing there is sustainable.

“We have milestones set, so if we see we are not getting them, we can withdraw in time. As an organisation – we have a mandate from the World Rugby council that we are going that route – we will put all our effort into it, to make sure it works.”

It will be the first time the Rugby World Cup is hosted in the Americas. The US market has long been closed off to rugby, and concerns remain regarding the commercial and logistical viability of the tournament being staged there, while the current lack of form of their men's senior national team, the US Eagles, is also a worry.

Politically, the world’s only superpower is undergoing a tumultuous period, which has put strain on their international relations.

Alexander also remained non-committal regarding South Africa hosting the World Cup in the future. The earliest year to do so would be 2035.

“We can only host the World Cup if the country also contributes a bit of money in upgrading facilities, excess police and all of those things,” Alexander explained.

“Right now, it would kind of be reckless of us to go to the government and expect them to dig deep in their pockets to upgrade certain facilities. The facilities, since 2010, some need a lot of work ...

“World Rugby runs from World Cup to World Cup,” Alexander continued.

“They need to maximise their revenue. Currently, 80% of the revenue comes out of the UK and France.

"If you take it to Africa, will we make that money? I doubt it.

“We need to be beyond selfish in wanting to host it here. We need to think about the rugby ecosystem itself. I don’t think we will bid, for now, as an organisation.”

Meanwhile, the Boks play their final Test of the year on Saturday in Cardiff against Wales (kick-off 5pm). They are currently unbeaten on their European Tour, having defeated Japan, France, Italy and most recently Ireland.

They will finish the year as the No-1 ranked team in world rugby ahead of the 2027 World Cup draw in early December.