Ireland Has Badly Lost The Bid To Host The Rugby World Cup In 2023

Sad news for all those eager rugby stadiums across Ireland - we haven't made the cut for the World Cup.

It's been announced that France will host the World Cup in 2023, after Ireland received just eight votes in the first count compared to France's 18 and 13 for South Africa.

It hasn't exactly been a great week for Irish sport...

Ireland miss the chance to go to Russia and then lose out on hosting the Rugby World Cup. The worst 24 hours in Irish sport since Sheamus was robbed of the WWE title.

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) November 15, 2017

Ireland's hopes of hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2023 were first dashed at the end of October when the World Rugby World Cup Limited Board unanimously voted for South Africa as it's preferred candidate for Rugby World Cup 2023 host. 

The board's choice of either Ireland, France or South Africa took into consideration a number of criteria including finance, infrastructure and stadia. 

Ireland scored the lowest of the three with a comparative score of 72.25%.