The loss of the annual November internationals, which were not fully offset by two home summer warm-ups against Italy and England, played a huge part in that, but so did the spend required to prepare the team.

Cheques had to be written for additional training camps and travel with the team spending time in Dublin, Portugal and France before returning to the continent for the tournament itself. There was also additional support staff, logistics, player costs and accommodation.

“With this team it was important that whatever was required to enable them to be at their best for this tournament, no stone was going to be left unturned,” Potts explained. “Everybody in Irish rugby would expect that and that investment has been made.

"It is the highest cost [ever]. The loss of the November games is massive. It comes up to a significant number alone. We do get money from World Rugby, around €5m this year, and that's netted off against that.” 

That cost base is unlikely to come down for Australia in 2027 and beyond, he predicted, before suggesting that World Rugby, which funds its global programmes via the tournament, may need to rethink the funding model for the participating nations.

“We're not the only union facing that hit,” he pointed out.

The IRFU boss has also warned that rugby will need to secure an increase in the value of its broadcast rights when they come up for renewal in three years’ time if the professional game is to wash its face going forward.

Some of the game’s main Test and club offerings have been aligned in recent years in an attempt to make them more attractive to prospective bidders, but it remains to be seen if they will be sold in bulk in 2026 or packaged into different bundles.

Central to this will be the question of the Six Nations and whether it remains free-to-air. Potts said it was “not necessarily” the case that the game’s ‘crown jewels’ would have to go behind a paywall, and pointed out that the URC is currently available on terrestrial TV.

The aim, as always, will be to achieve the right balance between eyeballs and income.

“The biggest challenge facing our sport in general is the future broadcasting outlook,” he explained at a media briefing which revealed that the IRFU has returned a deficit of just under €1m for the year up to July of this year.

“We're comfortable enough running deficits for now, but [for] all of the unions the next TV cycle from 2026 onwards, and the broadcast values that are obtained at that time, are really important.

“We're all working together very well on that, but that is vital. If we don't get uplifts at that time, we will have to start cutting some of our programmes. We're not expecting to have to do that, we're hoping and optimistic about that.” 

Potts was speaking prior to the union’s continuation AGM at the Aviva Stadium where the deficit announced was considerably less than the €7.4m figure that had been forecast for the year.

This was due in large part to the monies arising from the Ireland men’s team’s Grand Slam success, to the addition of Bank of Ireland as a sponsor for the 2022 November series, and to extra amortised revenues from the sale of new nine-year tickets.

Income fell from €116m to €92m, due to the fact that this period, unlike the 12 months preceding, did not include a government covid grant or the final tranche of the monies received from private equity firm CVC for its stake in what is now the URC.

Expenditure also decreased to just over €93m from €110m, reflecting the return to a more normal cost profile post-covid. The union’s balance sheet remains solid with net assets relatively unchanged at €106m and cash balances of €63m.

Potts predicted that the union deficit for the 2023/24 period is likely to be well over €10m but he expected a return close to a break-even figure 12 months later and that the 2026 broadcast contracts would be of sufficient value to eliminate deficits going forwards.

“At no stage in the next 10 years are we forecasting that the IRFU will go into debt.”