John McBeth on RWC: IRB's missed opportunity

The International Rugby Board must regret not having matches every day in this Rugby World Cup.

With no action on the field and only Daniel Carter's misfortune for people to talk about, the IRB has come under the spotlight and hasn't fared very well when they easily could have been.

I think their handling of some of the criticism has been inadequate, especially with regard to the Steve Tew comments regarding the huge losses facing the various national bodies if the current RWC financial model is not changed.

Tew's views are shared by many of his peers and the IRB has been aware of, and discussed the concerns over a lengthy period and will continue to work towards an agreement. Steve Tew just took the timely opportunity to gather publicity for the problem.

I think the IRB's chief executive, Mike Miller, was either ill advised, unprepared or being deliberately inflammatory when he suggested that it wouldn't really matter if New Zealand decided not to compete in future Rugby World Cups. He must have known what the public response would be.

To my way of thinking it just needed him to acknowledge the concerns, repeat that the IRB is working towards a solution and would not want any team to be unable to participate at a World Cup.

That's all he needed to say, instead he's fast becoming the most unpopular figure in New Zealand.

That's a shame because he and the IRB should be gaining plaudits for what they're doing for some of the smaller nations. It's only a couple of months ago that the Samoan High Performance centre was opened in Faleata. It consists of a gymnasium, recovery and rehab centre, 2 training grounds, accommodation for up to 90 and an administration centre for the Samoan Union.

This has been funded by revenue from the IRB through its Rugby World Cup profits and is part of the nearly 50 million dollars being invested in the Oceania region over the 2009-2012 period.

That's the sort of thing the IRB should be attracting attention over.

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