World Cup 2015: The appetite for Irish rugby may be at an all-time high– tomorrow's Heineken Cup semi-final will attract a world record attendance to a club game – but the prospect of a World Cup returning to these shores anytime soon remains as remote as ever.

Having initially signed up to a combined bid with England, Scotland and Wales for the 2015 tournament, the IRFU today announced it was withdrawing from the process with an inability to agree on the format seemingly the major stumbling block.

The Irish union had favoured a schedule that would see each of the home unions host all matches from an individual pool and also one of the quarter-finals.

However, it would appear that not all of the unions were quite so keen on the World Cup pie being divvied up in this manner and the IRFU today walked away from the bid.

“While all of the unions discussed this possibility at length, no agreement on a final bid could be reached and the IRFU came to the decision to withdraw,” the IRFU explained in a statement.

Philip Browne, IRFU chief executive, expressed his regret: “We are obviously disappointed at the outcome as I believe the Irish rugby and wider sporting public would have given tremendous support to the tournament.”

Ireland has played a part in hosting just one World Cup, again a joint effort with England, Wales, Scotland and also France, back in 1991.

On that occasion, Lansdowne Road was the venue for two pool matches and was also staged the memorable Ireland-Australia quarter-final and the subsequent New Zealand-Australia semi.

Ravenhill was also a venue for a Japan-Zimbabwe pool match.