The complex challenges of a
Rugby World Cup
Danny Cameron outlines MI Associates’ role at the heart of the greatest Rugby World Cup “Rugby World Cup 2019 (RWC 2019) has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time, and certainly the most ground-breaking in terms of bringing the game to new audiences and attracting new fans to the sport we love,” World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said at the completion of the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. And if you weren’t aware of the news through October 2019, the greatest ever Rugby World Cup (RWC) was staged in the midst of Japan’s typhoon season – which presented momentous challenges to those on the ground managing the event. MI Associates (MI) was intricately involved with the 2019 tournament and is proud of its success following six years of event planning bringing the tournament to life. MI has been involved in the planning or delivery of every Rugby World Cup since 2003 and Japan RWC 2019 presented some of the most complex challenges yet. The MI Associates team at Japan Rugby World Cup 2019.
24 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 137
Following a failed bid attempt in 2005 for RWC 2011, the first Rugby World Cup in Asia was awarded in July 2009 to the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) for the 2019 tournament. While Japan has played in every world cup since the tournament’s inception in 1987, and created what is generally seen as the greatest upset in rugby history during the 2015 tournament with their come from behind victory against South Africa, the awarding of the tournament to an Asian country came at a time of concerted effort from World Rugby to push into new audiences and grow the global game though Asia following the incredibly successful tournament in 2015 at rugby’s home, England. Japan represented a unique challenge as a Tier 2 rugby nation with limited recent major sporting event experience (most recently Japan was a co-host of the FIFA World Cup in 2002), an entirely different sports business culture and one of the most active countries in terms of potential for natural disasters. Japan Rugby World Cup 2019 Organising Committee (JR2019) initially turned to trusted international major events consultants to provide support and advice for the planning of the tournament. JR2019 engaged MI in 2013 to provide some strategic planning and project management tools to the organising committee, allowing the organisation to tap into MI’s unrivalled Rugby World Cup experience. MI leveraged over 19 years of major event experience to provide JR2019 with advice in contemporary major events standards. In 2017, as the operational planning intensified, JR2019 expanded its organisational structure with MI Managing Director, Chris Stanley, appointed the Executive Director of Planning and MI Consultant, Chris Barling, seconded to
