(L-R) Former Irish international rugby player Brian O'Driscoll, Irish Rugby chief Philip Browne, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Ireland 2023 Bid Chairman Dick Spring, Ireland's Sports minister Shane Ross and head of the Northern Ireland civil service David Sterling take part in a press conference after Ireland presented their bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup in London on September 25, 2017 Photo: Getty

Trick, or treat? A nervy Irish World Cup 2023 bid team will find out later today if Halloween heralds the promise of goodies to come when the big prize is dished out on November 15 - or else unfurls a nightmare should their bid falter at the penultimate hurdle as the expert independent assessments of the respective bids from South Africa, Ireland and France are handed over to the blazers.

The promise is that everything will be above board, unlike on previous occasions when intense lobbying and horse-trading of votes - including, it is alleged, by the IRFU themselves - damaged the credibility of the bid process.

Expand Close South Africa PROS: Exchange rate is very favourable for visitors, the weather will be good, they have big tournament experience (2010 Soccer World Cup was an outstanding success despite security scaremongering) and have lost out three times in a row. Inter-racial harmony and weakness of sport also key. Oh, and purported profits of €350m. CONS: A lack of political unity and failure to deliver on recent sporting promises – Durban’s Commonwealth Games farce – undermined bid and, despite having vast stadia, no guarantee they will be filled. AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp South Africa PROS: Exchange rate is very favourable for visitors, the weather will be good, they have big tournament experience (2010 Soccer World Cup was an outstanding success despite security scaremongering) and have lost out three times in a row. Inter-racial harmony and weakness of sport also key. Oh, and purported profits of €350m. CONS: A lack of political unity and failure to deliver on recent sporting promises – Durban’s Commonwealth Games farce – undermined bid and, despite having vast stadia, no guarantee they will be filled.

But, please, this is not FIFA or its World Cup. Rugby - and its organising body, World Rugby - are above such shenanigans.

Which is why the rugby nabobs have recruited those global masters of open-laptop omnipotence - the "consultants" - to oversee the final stages of the 2023 Rugby World Cup process.

Ireland, France and South Africa are the three countries remaining in the multi-million-euro high-stakes gamble for the right to host the jamboree that effectively bankrolls the global game.

So, no pressure then.

Expand Close France PROS: Like South Africa, France offer recent, reliable evidence that they can host a trouble-free tournament that can pony up sufficient readies to keep everyone happy. A World Cup – in either soccer or rugby – is a wonderful experience in this country. CONS: More than a whiff of controversy has been attached to the bid, with dubious links between French rugby head Bernard Laporte and Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad, while the government have been detached from the process. Paris Olympics may overshadow a second staging in just five World Cup cycles. Photo: Getty AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp France PROS: Like South Africa, France offer recent, reliable evidence that they can host a trouble-free tournament that can pony up sufficient readies to keep everyone happy. A World Cup – in either soccer or rugby – is a wonderful experience in this country. CONS: More than a whiff of controversy has been attached to the bid, with dubious links between French rugby head Bernard Laporte and Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad, while the government have been detached from the process. Paris Olympics may overshadow a second staging in just five World Cup cycles. Photo: Getty

The Sports Consultancy firm - helpfully calling themselves 'The Sports Consultancy' - are the body entrusted by World Rugby to ensure they can be eventually trusted to deliver a transparent process before the decision to announce the winning bid is made on November 15. Today is a crucial stepping stone towards success.

Gainsay

If a clear winner does emerge, then it is highly unlikely that the World Rugby Council blazers can conceivably gainsay the recommendations of the experts as that would utterly undermine the supposed integrity of the process. But a clear winner may not emerge at all.

Which means that the process will indeed return to darkened rooms and horse-trading corridors of power, precisely the scenario that World Rugby had hoped to avoid by employing the consultants in the first place.

First things first, though.

The RWC 2023 Bid Evaluation Report that will be released to host candidates, World Rugby Council and the media later today is an attempt to offset such politicking .

The evaluation has been carried out by a significant team of internal and external functional area experts, against weighted criteria that reflect World Rugby's key objectives.

The host candidate which achieves the highest score will be recommended by the Rugby World Cup Board as RWC 2023 host.

The Sports Consultancy has scrutinised every aspect of the evaluation to ensure all candidates have been treated fairly and that the agreed criteria have been consistently applied.

So what criteria will be assessed?

Agreed by both the Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) Board and Council, and then communicated to host candidates, they are based on World Rugby's objectives and many of them appear quite woolly, with much corporate-speak of vision, enabling environment and diversity.

Ireland's bid will not falter because of their team's laughable insistence that Killarney is but a two-hour jaunt from Dublin, nor the vague aspiration that hotels will not be allowed to fleece customers.

The key factor will be financial and it would not at all be a surprise to see the process kicked into the boardroom, with no clear winner emerging today, although it is likely one country might drop out.

That could be France who, despite guaranteeing €160m, €40m more than the minimum bid required, are Olympic hosts in 2024; this may be the one factor that could derail them.

But from the criteria being examined, it is difficult to conceive how such notional problems may affect their bid, given their proven ability to host, as they did in 2007.

And given their thinly-concealed confidence in delivering better bang for their euro than anyone else, they may not lag as far behind the leading duo as many suspect.

Ireland and South Africa have led the running for more than a year now and, although the Irish have not committed as much money up front, the prospect of a World Cup held in Ireland appeals to many.

But that is purely an emotional, rather than a fact-based viewpoint, and the IRFU's bid team - which has stumped up some €4m on the process - will have needed to appeal to not merely hearts and minds of World Rugby, but the bank accounts too.

France and South Africa have focused heavily on the fact that Japan 2019 will not be a money-spinner and they can thus fill the breach; Ireland have been less bullish about financial aspects.

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They point to a 40-million diaspora in the US who can help expand rugby's horizons but whether that can bring readily identifiable cash to the table is another thing.

Crucially, the council can choose to ignore the recommendation; then, the voting, with strict guidelines on lobbying, takes place and it should "take the Evaluation Commission's recommendation into consideration".

Argentina, Australia, England, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales carry three votes apiece. Japan, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America and South America have two each.

The four other unions, from Canada, Georgia, Romania and the United States, have one vote apiece.

Each union with multiple votes can choose to split up their allocation, meaning that Australia, England or New Zealand could feasibly give one vote to each of the three bids. Equally, they can also abstain, choosing not to vote. Neither scenario is likely.

Votes are kept confidential and if one team reaches a majority of 20 votes in the first round, then they will be crowned hosts.

If there is no majority, then the candidates with the fewest votes will be eliminated, leaving it as a two-horse race in round two.

In the event of a stalemate, World Rugby's chairman Bill Beaumont will decide the 2023 hosts.

Today could provide a winning conversion for someone.

Or a kick to touch.

Irish Independent