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.

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

the Central Management Group (CMG). MI joined with local organising committee CMG members to provide JR2019 with project management tools and the risk assessment/ framework as well as operational crisis, contingency and readiness planning frameworks.

One of the major considerations identified in the comprehensive tournament risk assessment was the effect of a major natural disaster. Following the risk assessment, a major focus for both JR2019 and World Rugby then became how to address and mitigate against this risk. MI was integral to developing a Crisis Management Plan and a Back-up Venue Plan, as well as a Tournament Delays, Postponement, Abandonment and Cancellation Policy. MI also facilitated extensive readiness discussions prior to the tournament and as a result fulfilled a key role within the joint JR2019 and World Rugby incident management team (IMT).

Describing the challenges of the tournament planning and delivery, Stanley advises “we really were at the heart of this great project.”

Explaining how the tournament preparedness was tested to the greatest possible extent when Typhoon Hagibis, the most devastating typhoon to hit the Kanto (Tokyo/ Yokohama) since 1958, approached Japan at the end of the pool phase, Stanley advises “the IMT was initiated and our teams worked around the clock with our dedicated weather meteorologist to understand the likely pathway of the typhoon.

“As an indication of the enormity of the disaster being faced, Typhoon Hagibis, approximately 1,400 kilometres in diameter, was nearly four times the size of the typhoon that approached at the start of the tournament.”

In the Main Operation Centre, the IMT heard the typhoon was predicted to be the biggest typhoon of the 2019 season and was highly likely to cause considerable disruption in the

Media conference on Typhoon Hagibis during Japan Rugby World Cup 2019. The operations centre at Japan Rugby World Cuop 2019.

Tokyo, Yokohama and city of Toyota areas throughout Saturday 12th October, including likely public transport shutdown or disruption.

That coincided with the final seven fixtures of the pool phase, some critical to determine the progression of teams to the knockout stage.

As Hagibis approached Japan, the IMT took the unprecedented step to cancel two pool matches on Saturday 12th October.

World Rugby advised the world’s media on the evening of 10th October, stating “it is an exceptional, complex and rapidly evolving situation and team and public safety is the number one priority.

“Our primary consideration is the safety of everyone. Our message to fans continues to be stay indoors, do not travel … stay safe.”

The typhoon made landfall in Japan on the evening of Saturday 12th October 2019. Across 11 prefectures, the typhoon caused heavy flooding, loss of power and evacuation orders were issued to more than 800,000 households. Sadly 95 Japanese citizens lost their lives.

It was a critical juncture in the tournament, and the IMT did their utmost to ensure decisions were made at the very last moment to enable the most accurate information to be actioned. The typhoon quickly passed overnight, and the IMT monitored the situation around the clock. It is safe to say Stanley did not get many hours sleep during this period.

At first light on Sunday 13th October, ground inspections were conducted with the Host Cities for all Sunday’s games. While one further game was cancelled, it is as a testament to the readiness planning, resilience of the Japanese transportation system and tenacity of the JR2019 venue teams that the critical match of Japan vs. Scotland at Yokohama International Stadium was held with a capacity crowd of 72,000 less than 12 hours after the typhoon had passed.

Stanley recalls “the one-minute silence at the start of the game for those affected by the typhoon, and the host nation’s stirring resolve throughout the game, saw Japan victorious over Scotland 28-21 in what is one of the greatest moments in World Rugby I have ever witnessed.”

It would be fair to say that the whole 2019 tournament exceeded all expectations in terms of achieving World Rugby’s aspirations for the tournament.

The Japanese National side (the ‘Brave Blossoms’) were incredibly successful beating Scotland and Ireland to proceed to the knockout stages for the first time. The JFRU has also already confirmed fixtures against England and Ireland for the 2020 season – a huge boost for the nation and raising the potential that its Tier 2 World Rugby status might be short-lived.

The RWC2019 is just the start of a spectacular series of major events in Japan over the coming years, guaranteed to bring

enjoyment, tourists and economic benefits to Japan. With the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, the World Masters Games in Kansai in 2021 and the World Expo in 2025, RWC2019 has set the standard and momentum for an exciting period of global attention for the host nation.

Meanwhile, back in the Australian offices of MI, the team is now turning its attention to supporting Rugby Australia in its development of the documentation for the RWC2027 bid, and is also excited by the opportunities presented by the South East Queensland 2032 Olympic Games, following the recent announcement by the Queensland Government that it will continue with its bid process. Rugby World Cup 2019 statistics •Record 99.3% attendance with 1.84 million tickets sold •Record 1.13 million people in fan zones •Record 54.8 million television audience for Japan v Scotland (Japan team involved in top five biggest ever television audiences) •Record 437 billion Yen economic impact •Record more than 1.7 billion digital video views •Record legacy programme with 1.8 million new participants •Record CSR programme with more than US$2.5 million raised for ChildFund Pass It Back •Record competitiveness with 30.5 average winning margin between Tier 1 and Tier 2 •Record attendance of 70,103 spectators at Yokohama International Stadium for the final

Danny Cameron is a former journalist now employed by MI Associates to work on authoring business cases, tenders and proposals. Based in Sydney and Melbourne, MI Associates are a leading Australian-based team of management consultants who work in sport, arts and culture and tourism.

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