On Monday Sept. 25, Ireland, France and South Africa's delegations presented their bids to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup to World Rugby's council.
Each presentation lasted in the region of 30 minutes, with the presentation and following questions remaining confidential.
Then the delegations faced the media and outlined their plans for the 2023 tournament and fielded questions from the press on all manner of subjects.
How does the voting work for the 2023 Rugby World Cup?
World Rugby has appointed the technical review group to independently analyse, forensically, each bid on a number of criteria across economic, financial and commercial criteria. On Oct. 31 they will recommend one of the three bids to World Rugby's board.
The board will then inform the council of their preferred candidate with the council meeting again on Nov. 15 to vote.
The council can choose to ignore the board's recommendation, or take in on board and apply it to their vote.
There are a total of 39 votes at play in World Rugby's council as France, South Africa and Ireland do not get a vote.
The votes are split as follows:
Tier One Teams [England, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand, Argentina, Australia and Italy]: 3 votes each.
Japan [2019 Hosts]: 2 votes.
6 Regional Associations [Oceania, Europe, Africa, Asia, Sud America, North America]: 2 votes each.
Four other unions [USA, Canada, Romania, Georgia] -- 1 vote each.
Each country with multiple votes can chose to split up their allocation, so one tier one nation could feasibly give one vote to each of the three bids.
Others may choose to allocate all three of their votes to one bid.
Equally, they can also abstain, choosing not to vote for one of the candidates.
Votes are kept confidential and if one team reaches a majority in the first round -- 20 votes -- then they will be crowned hosts of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
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.
Whoever gets the most votes here will be chosen as hosts.
In the unlikely event of a stalemate, then World Rugby's chairman, Bill Beaumont, will decide who will be given the 2023 Rugby World Cup.