Rugby recruits power elite for 2027 World Cup bid

John Coates and Gary Ella have been added by Rugby Australia to its already high-powered 2027 Rugby World Cup bid advisory committee.

AOC boss John Coates and Wallabies great Gary Ella have joined the 2027 Rugby World Cup bid advisory committee. Picture: John Feder

International Olympic Committee vice-president John Coates and Aboriginal sporting legend Gary Ella have been added by Rugby Australia to its already high-powered 2027 Rugby World Cup bid advisory committee.

The appointments bring to nine the leading figures assembled by Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan to make certain there are no slip-ups in bringing the World Cup to Australia for the first time since 2003.

Former prime minister John Howard, a self-confessed rugby tragic, former governor-general and former RA board member Peter Cosgrove, World Cup-­winning captain John Eales and McLennan himself are on the advisory committee headed by businessman Rod Eddington.

With Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Elizabeth Gaines and Qantas Loyalty chief Olivia Wirth, it is an ­assembly of captains of industry.

Australia is the only candidate currently vying for the 2027 tournament and clearly McLennan wants to keep it that way, putting together a committee almost ­designed to scare off potential challengers.

“John Coates is Australia’s top sporting official globally and a legend and he knows how to get bids done,” Mr McLennan said.

“Gary Ella is a great Wallaby, an inspirational Indigenous leader and a great Australian. We are privileged to have them.”

It is almost a statement of fact that no one in world sports knows more about delivering a successful bid, or evaluating one, than Mr Coates. He had a tough learning curve as head of the unsuccessful bids by Brisbane and Melbourne for the 1992 and 1996 Games before masterminding Sydney’s win for the 2000 Olympics.

Now he has thrown his weight behind the Brisbane regional bid for the 2032 Games.

There still is uncertainty over whether the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the Tokyo Olympics — scheduled to start on Friday — will allow the Games to proceed next July. While the Japanese organisers are working tirelessly to reconfirm the 42 sporting venues and arranging for the 11 developers responsible for the Olympic Village to delay the sale of apartments for 12 months, it is still unclear whether health conditions in Japan and around the 206 Olympic nations will allow the Games to proceed.

“If it requires quarantine, that’s what we will address,” Mr Coates said on Tuesday.

“While we are preparing for that now, those decisions need not be taken now. They can be taken later in the year when we’ll have a better idea. We will be guided on this by World Health and by the Japanese authorities.”

Understandably, given he was elected vice-president of the IOC on Friday, Mr Coates checked with his IOC boss, Thomas Bach, to confirm he was happy for him to serve on the World Cup advisory board.

“I think the (World Cup) prospects for Australia are outstanding. It is an Olympic sport and there’s many IOC members who come from a rugby background and when we are back travelling again, I don’t think it is going to hurt to gently talk the talk. I guess I can contribute when it comes to the candidature, how best to prosecute it and those sorts of things.”

For Ella, who with twin brothers Mark and Glen, formed the most dynamic trio of siblings in Australian rugby history, his involvement on the committee has stirred memories of his work for the 2000 Sydney Games.

“I was in charge of the Aboriginal program for the Olympic Games,” said Ella. “So I have an idea how big occasions are run, so that was pretty important.

“As an ex-Wallaby, I can give some advice on what players will be looking for. I think I can add a little on the cultural side, as well, seeing my background has been working with indigenous communities.”