Dubai would be a dream host for club World Cup of rugby

Football had the Intercontinental Cup and then the Club World Cup, after all, so why not rugby? But surely they would need a proper neutral venue. What about Dubai, asks Paul Radley.

Events such as the Dubai Rugby Sevens, above featuring New Zealand and Samoa in the final, drew large audiences and prove that talk of Dubai to host a major, winner-take-all "Super Bowl" of club rugbyShow more

Mourad Boudjellal likes thinking big. The comic-book impresario has chosen to lavish much of his enormous wealth on rugby, filling Toulon with galacticos and making them Europe's top team in the process.

If they win Saturday's French league final, he wants them to play a one-off fixture against the champions of Super Rugby, in Monaco.

What an occasion that would be. Football had the Intercontinental Cup and then the Club World Cup, after all, so why not rugby?

But surely they would need a proper neutral venue, not one on the French club's doorstep.

What about Dubai? Blue-sky thinking? Probably, but we used to indulge in a fair bit of that in these parts. While a man of his means may be just what is needed to drive the idea into fruition, Boudjellal's concept is not entirely original.

In the latter half of the 1990s, the idea was floated more than once, with Dubai as the fantasy destination. It did not seem outlandish back then. They were building palm-shaped islands in the sea at the time, so staging potentially the world's biggest club rugby match seemed small-time in comparison.

It was put to Brian O'Driscoll, the Irish centre, whether his Leinster could beat the Crusaders, who were blazing a trail in Super Rugby. Combine the whole of Ireland, and maybe they would stand a chance, he said.

It would need a generous sponsor for it to happen.

Probably existing rugby supporters.

Someone who could fly the teams and their supporters in from various points of the globe.

Can you think of anyone?

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