England RFU chief pledges ‘best ever’ World Cup

ENGLAND have won the right to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The International Rugby Board’s 26-man council voted 16-10 in favour of accepting the recommended package of England as hosts for the 2015 World Cup with Japan staging the tournament in 2019.

The England RFU’s success in Dublin guarantees England will host two of the three biggest sporting events in the world – the 2012 Olympics and the Rugby World Cup – inside three years. The Football Association will complete an unprecedented hat-trick if they are successful in their bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup to England.

The RFU will not be staging matches in Ireland or Scotland and their plans to use the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff are still to be passed by the IRB.

But RFU chief executive Francis Baron insisted England’s desire to stage the best World Cup ever would benefit rugby across Britain and Ireland.

“This is a massive day for us. We believe we can do something special with the World Cup and our objective is to make it the best World Cup ever in 2015.

“We want to maximise the impact of a World Cup in England for the benefit of rugby in Britain and Ireland.”

Subject to approval from the World Cup board and the draw itself, the RFU would look to base Ireland near their fanbase in Liverpool and Manchester with Scotland potentially in the north-east.

The RFU now expect to confirm plans to use Old Trafford along with six other club football grounds in Anfield, the Emirates Stadium, St James’ Park, Elland Road, St Mary’s Stadium and the Ricoh Arena plus Wembley.

Leicester’s Welford Road and Gloucester’s Kingsholm are the only dedicated club rugby grounds on the roster.

The final will be held at Twickenham on October 17, 2015.

The RFU are confident they can convince the IRB there is a “compelling reason” for using the Millennium Stadium given its status as a Test rugby ground, its proximity to London and record of high attendances.

However, the IRB could conceivably rule to allow use of the Millennium Stadium providing Wales are not afforded home advantage. A decision is not expected until at least March.

Japan are in a similar boat after submitting their bid with plans to split a pool between Singapore and Hong Kong, although it is hard to see the IRB dismissing that request given their desire to spread the game through Asia.

England 2015 will generate a projected £300million for the IRB in tournament guarantee and commercial returns while the RFU expect to sell 2.8million tickets, with an average attendance of 57,000.

Rivals South Africa felt they would match England on commercial grounds and bid chairman Mark Alexander said: “This is a sad day. We offered the IRB an outstanding tournament from a commercial and development perspective.”

But ultimately the package of England 2015 and Japan 2019 was seen to provide the best opportunity to take the World Cup into new territory and spread rugby’s reach around the world.

The £300million cash injection would also allow the IRB to maximise revenues from the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand – which is set to make an operating loss of between £20-30million – with television rights for both tournaments set to be bundled together.