World Rugby officials are still undecided about where the 2019 World Cup final will be played after the Japanese government scuttled their proposal to stage the match in Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium.
The revised stadium is expected to open just three months before the Olympic games begin in 2020, missing the 2019 rugby tournament entirely.
The rugby officials hastily organised a meeting with the Japanese organisers on the sidelines of the International Olympic Commission session in Malaysia, to discuss how this would affect the tournament.
Reuters is quoting the World Rugby Chief Executive, Brett Gosper, as saying: “I think everyone was surprised by the announcement from the Prime Minister of Japan, the Olympic movement included, and we were all taken a little bit aback by that.
“We had plans to use that incredible stadium, obviously for our finals and key games in World Cup 2019, so we met with the 2019 people here from Japan two days ago”.