IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset will oversee the bid presentations in Dublin next Wednesday © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours: Rugby World Cup

Teams: Argentina | Australia | England | France | Ireland | Italy | New Zealand | Scotland | South Africa | Wales

The International Rugby Board (IRB) has confirmed that four Unions will bid to host either Rugby World Cup 2015 or 2019.

England, Italy, Japan and South Africa have formally submitted detailed tenders for Rugby World Cup 2015, while all with the exception of England have confirmed their intention to bid for the 2019 tournament. The deadline for tender submissions to the IRB at its Dublin headquarters was 5pm today.

"We are delighted to have countries of the calibre of England, Italy, Japan and South Africa bidding for the right to host a Rugby World Cup," said IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset in a statement. "The unprecedented response, a record for Rugby World Cup, reflects the growing global prestige of a tournament that is established as the world's third-largest sporting event."

The IRB have demanded minimum guarantees of £80m and £96m for the 2015 and 2019 tournaments respectively but Lapasset defended the controversial move by once again underlining the positive financial impact for previous hosts.

"The economic benefits to the host country are significant. An independent Deloitte report indentified the total economic benefits as being up to £2.1 billion for the host nation while the promotion of the country, the Rugby and sports legacy and the feel good factor are also major attractions for hosting Rugby World Cup," he said.

"The France 2007 Organising Committee achieved a £70 million tournament surplus and created £15 million profit for investment in the Game in France," added Lapasset, who is also chairman of Rugby World Cup Limited.

The next phase of the tender process will see each of the Unions outline their bids in a 30 minute presentation to the IRB Council in Dublin on May 13. The presentations will kick start detailed analysis of the tenders, including independent financial and commercial evaluation, before the IRB announces the Host Unions for Rugby World Cup 2015 and Rugby World Cup 2019 on July 28.

Rugby World Cup 2007 in France was hailed as the most successful Rugby World Cup ever. The tournament was broadcast to a global television audience of over 4 billion and generated a record net surplus of £122.4 million.

The IRB have also stressed that RWC 2007 enjoyed 2.2 million public ticket sales with an attendance rate of 97% for the matches in France, a full corporate sponsorship inventory and unprecedented corporate hospitality sales with over 100,000 packages sold (greater than the last two tournaments combined). Bidders for the tournament will be hoping for similar returns with ticket sales their main weapon in the battle to recoup the large hosting guarantees.

The sport's governing body also insists that the generation of a significant surplus from the tournament is now allowing unprecedented investment in the Game across all 116 Member Unions. The net surplus from the tournament funds the IRB's major investment initiatives including the annual Union grants and the strategic investment programme that, in the years between RWC tournaments, targets specific development programmes to increase the competitiveness of the Game. In the next four years the IRB will invest over £150 million in the global Game.