New Zealand “very prepared” for Rugby World Cup

The head of the Rugby World Cup organising committee has announced that preparations for this year’s tournament are on track.

The seventh edition of the tournament begins on September 9 in New Zealand.

Snedden said that New Zealand is “very prepared” and the chief remains optimistic about projections of 85,000 international visitors to the country, despite New Zealand’s geographic isolation and current world economic issues.

He said: “One of our biggest challenges is that New Zealand is stuck away at the end of the world with really only Australia as our closest neighbour and a long way away from some of the international rugby markets that we’ve been targeting. But we’ve been absolutely delighted with the number of people who have committed to coming to New Zealand.”

Saturday’s win over Australia at Auckland was the final test for the country ahead of the tournament. Rugby World Cup police commander Grant O’Fee said policing of the game had “worked very well”, whilst everything else worked smoothly apart from a small transport glitch after the match.

Ticket sales are expected to bring in US$223 million in revenue and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has estimated that the influx of tourists will give the country’s economy a 0.33% boost.