RTÉ to miss out on English clash

IRELAND’s glamorous Rugby World Cup warm-up against England at the Aviva Stadium next month will not be broadcast live on RTÉ or any terrestrial network, it has emerged.

Sky Sports’ agreement with the English RFU gives them first refusal on the fixture, creating an “unprecedented” situation where a home Irish international is not covered live by RTÉ. However Montrose will have highlights of the August 27th clash, the last of four warm-up games for Ireland, that night.

It is another blow for RTÉ’s sports department which has already suffered the loss of Heineken Cup highlights and will be forced to continue pruning its offering as part of a raft of cutbacks.

An IRFU spokesperson confirmed last night that part of the agreement for the English RFU to travel to Dublin was that Sky Sports would be given first refusal on live coverage.

RTÉ will have live coverage of Ireland’s home and away warm-ups with France, while the BBC network is covering our first warm-up game against Scotland in Murrayfield early next month.

One million Rugby World Cup 2011 tickets have been sold, with revenue reaching $NZ220 million.

The tip over into seven digits came after a surge in sales during the final phase of ticketing which opened to public this week. The sales in this final phase increased ticket revenue by $17 million.

Fans purchased 211,000 tickets in the past six weeks, at a value of $NZ51 million. This brought the RWC sales revenue up to 82% of its final target of €200m, based on Rugby New Zealand 2011’s forecast for expected ticket sales of 1.35 million from 48 Tournament matches.