Irish Rugby Chief Praises England & Says He’s Disappointed In Wales & Scotland

We always knew the English lads were sound.

Irish Rugby chief executive Phillip Browne has expressed his huge disappointment with Celtic neighbours Wales and Scotland after yesterday’s Rugby World Cup vote.

Only England backed Ireland in the first round, with Scotland and Wales backing France and South Africa respectively. This left Ireland with just eight votes, ruling them out of the running in the first round.

Browne says Ireland are terribly disappointed, but thanked England for their support.

“The only issue we have – we know that Scotland and Wales didn’t vote for us and that made a huge difference,” Browne told RTÉ Sport.

“As our nearest neighbours, that is a huge disappointment to us. Scotland were pretty consistent in saying they would wait for the evaluation report and that they would go with the bid that produces the most money.

Wales felt duty-bound and honour-bound to support Gareth Davies as he is a director of Rugby World Cup Limited, who actually produced the evaluation report. I can understand that.

“But even so it is terribly disappointing. We have to thank England who have supported us. It’s funny – when the chips are down the one country that always supports Ireland is England. We’re very grateful for that.”

It certainly makes the Six Nations ever more interesting next year.