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England vs Fiji - The Opening Match of RWC 2015

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Post by Courage1989 Wed May 01, 2013 11:18 pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/10032194/Fiji-expected-to-be-first-opponents-for-hosts-England-at-2015-World-Cup.html

The full match schedule for Britain’s biggest sporting event since the Olympics, which is formally unveiled on Thursday, will also feature 13 venues in what is a surprise move by organisers, who it was previously thought would name 12.

The 20-team tournament will kick-off at Twickenham on Sept 18, 2015, when England are expected to face the winners of the Oceania qualifying competition.

The Rugby Football Union had been keen to avoid opening with a game against Wales or Australia, with the three teams likely to compete for two quarter-final places in Pool A.

England are also expected to play one match away from Twickenham, although that will not be at the Millennium Stadium against Wales, who had volunteered to host the fixture.

It looks most likely to be their pool game against the eventual winner of the qualifying repechage, which could take place in the north.

The tournament schedule was finally approved on Wednesday by the International Rugby Board, almost seven months after a long list of venues was first announced.

The identities of the stadiums chosen to host the six-week competition have been a closely-guarded secret since England 2015 submitted the list to the IRB almost three weeks ago and it only emerged last night that 13 had been selected.

They are thought to include all four recognised rugby grounds on the 18-strong long list, with Gloucester’s Kingsholm and Exeter’s Sandy Park joining Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium on the final schedule.

It should also contain eight football venues in Wembley, St James’ Park, the Etihad Stadium, Villa Park, Elland Road, Brighton’s Amex Stadium, Leicester City’s King Power Stadium, and MK Dons’ stadiummk. The Olympic Stadium is thought to be the crucial final piece of the jigsaw.

Despite qualification still taking place, the 12 finalists who secured an automatic spot with their results at the last World Cup will discover today where they will play their pool matches.

Of the tournament’s 48 games, eight each are likely to take place at Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium, which look set to share all eight knockout matches.

The Olympic Stadium will stage up to five pool games, Wembley between two and four, and the Etihad Stadium just one. The rest are expected to hold between two and three each.

There has been intense speculation over which venues would make the cut since the original 17-strong long list was announced in October.

That ultimately proved futile, with tournament organisers confronted with a series of obstacles that forced them to change their plans right up to the last minute. They twice needed to add grounds to the long list after issues emerged around staging games at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate and, embarrassingly, Old Trafford.

Indeed, Manchester United’s decision to withdraw from the race came after the original deadline for England 2015 to submit its final match schedule to the IRB.

Fortunately, organisers had already been granted more time to secure the inclusion of the Olympic Stadium, which was in danger of being lost due to the multi-million-pound transformation it will undergo in preparation for West Ham’s tenancy.

Sandy Park and the Etihad Stadium were all but guaranteed selection after organisers added them to the list rather than simply exclude Ashton Gate and Old Trafford.

Most of the other decisions came down to geographical head-to-heads, with England 2015 having promised to take the tournament to all corners of the country. Newcastle and Brighton were always favourites to be chosen ahead of Sunderland and Southampton, but selecting venues in the Midlands was far less clear cut.

Birmingham, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Coventry and Derby were vying for what appeared two spots on the list. But having already had difficulty getting football grounds to stage three or more games at a busy period of a season for clubs, it seems organisers opted to spread the load around three venues instead.

With Leicester a hotbed of rugby and Northampton Saints having used stadiummk, the final decision seemed to be between Villa Park and the Ricoh Arena, whose owners are at loggerheads with Coventry City over unpaid rent.

Geography was also a compelling factor in the claims of Kingsholm and Elland Road, the latter particularly since the withdrawal of Old Trafford, which had been earmarked for at least three games.

With Manchester City agreeing to host just one, it left organisers in danger of reneging on their promise to boost rugby union’s profile outside its traditional heartlands.

Of greater concern was the loss of up to 225,000 tickets, almost 10 per cent of the 2.9 million England 2015 need to sell to be sure of meeting the IRB’s £80 million revenue target.

That was compounded by Wembley being unavailable to host knockout matches because of its commitment to stage the National Football League’s annual European fixture in October of that year.

The importance of the Olympic Stadium from a revenue point of view was laid bare when it emerged it would host up to five matches, with the apparent decision to restrict the knockout games to Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium reinforcing the necessity to make maximum use of the largest venues.

What happens next? Building up to 2015

Qualification

Twelve of the 20 places at the 2015 World Cup have already been taken by the Six Nations, four Championship teams, and Tonga and Samoa.

Those countries all qualified at the last tournament, which had guaranteed places for all quarter-finalists and the four teams who finished third in their pools. The latter helped guard against dead-rubber matches towards the end of the pool stages, which will continue in 2015.

The remaining eight places will be filled gradually over the course of a complex qualifying campaign involving 80 countries and 184 matches. Teams compete against others from their continent, with two guaranteed spots each for Europe and the Americas, and one for Africa, Oceania and Asia. The final place is determined by repechage. Qualifying began in March last year and is not set to conclude until next year.

Tickets

Organisers can begin finalising a ticket pricing policy now that the venues are being confirmed. It is thought they must sell 2.9 million tickets to fulfil the revenue pledge made to the International Rugby Board of £80   million, a condition of England being named hosts. That figure was underwritten by the Government but the Rugby

Football Union would share liability if there were a shortfall. With an emphasis on selling out matches, there is likely to be a huge range of ticket prices, with the lowest likely to be for less glamorous fixtures at smaller venues.


So that means either 1 of Wales or Australia will start late and have an awful schedule, and that's usually Tier 3 sides so that's Wales Sad. Samoa have been the victim of this on several occasions at World Cups, hence the thought of looking at how to reschedule.

England will probably being the case of home field advantage will play a big team in their second game, probably Wales, and their final group game will be Australia. :? Either way it's a bitch of a group. Could be utterly wrong on that last bit though. The organisers do want England to start with 5 points though.

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Post by Courage1989 Wed May 01, 2013 11:28 pm

By my reckoning the fixture list will be something like this:

England vs Fiji
England vs Australia
England vs Euro Qualifier
England vs Wales

Australia vs Euro Qualifier
Australia vs England
Australia vs Fiji
Australia vs Wales

Wales vs Euro Qualifier
Wales vs Fiji
Wales vs Australia
Wales vs England

The key thing is England will get 7 to 8 days between all games, Australia 6 to 7, and Wales 4 to 5.

Wales are going to be spent if we look at the basis of 2011 within reason and past world cups.

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Post by michaelbolton Thu May 02, 2013 10:02 am


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Post by Raggs Thu May 02, 2013 10:14 am

Not quite right Courage, Wales with very short turnover times Very Happy maybe chance for an upset there. Though they have the big and small games intermingled.
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Post by Basil Thu May 02, 2013 3:14 pm


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Post by Courage1989 Thu May 02, 2013 3:24 pm

Indeed. England in a very good position. Need to make it count and take top spot.

I signed up as an ERSC last night Very Happy. Just need to finalise the details with the RFU Very Happy!

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Post by Basil Thu May 02, 2013 4:15 pm

I have been a member of the ERSC for almost 10 years Very Happy

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Post by quind Thu May 02, 2013 5:21 pm

I used to be, but got bored of the magazine, and never got decent tickets that way so gave up

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