The dust having scarcely settled on the composition of the Lions’ squad for this summer’s tour, not to mention Joe Schmidt’s coronation and some decisive end-of-season matches coming thick and fast, than the IRB yesterday confirmed the schedule for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England. Rugby is certainly not a sport inclined to let the grass grow under its feet.
The reason is, of course, reaching the revised target of 2.58 million ticket sales and the England Rugby 2015 (ER 2015) €95 million hosting fee, and hence large-scale venues are optimum. Twickenham hosts five pool games plus two quarter-finals and the semi-finals onwards, with Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium home to half a dozen pool matches as well as two quarter-finals, and while the traditional rugby grounds at Gloucester and Exeter are also included, eight of the 13 chosen venues are football grounds along with the Olympic Stadium, where West Ham will henceforth play.
It is a measure of Ireland’s potential support that their four-match schedule in Pool D is bookended by games in the Millennium Stadium (capacity 74,154), with sandwiched games in Wembley (90,256) and the Olympic Stadium (which by then will be reduced to 54,000).
Ireland begin against Americas 1 (probably Canada or the USA Eagles) on Saturday, September 19th (on the same day that France meet Italy), followed by Europe 2 (possibly Georgia or Russia) on Saturday, September 27th before meeting Italy on Sunday, October 4th and then France on Sunday, October 11th.
Once more, the carrot for topping the pool would appear to be considerable, as the Pool D winners will meet the runners-up from Pool A, containing Australia, England or, a tad ominously, Wales, at the Millennium Stadium, whereas the Pool D runners-up would most likely run into New Zealand just six days later, also in Cardiff, in the half of the draw also seeded to include South Africa.
Widely criticised
Organisers were widely criticised at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand for a scheduling that favoured tier 1 countries. "This is the most balanced and equitable match schedule in the history of the Rugby World Cup," said IRB chief executive Brett Gosper yesterday.
“There are only five occasions for Tier 1 nations and five occasions for Tier 2 nations where the rest period is as small as three. Generally across the schedule you have a balanced rest day programme.”
Nonetheless, it’s worth noting England, Wales, Italy and Ireland are the only countries with no shortened turnarounds. Australian concerns they may have to play Wales in Cardiff in addition to England in Twickenham have been allayed, with both those games taking place in Twickenham.
The tournament begins at Twickenham with the opener between England and, most likely Fiji, on Friday, September 18th, before culminating there 42 days later with the final on Sunday, October 31st, and will he held in 10 cities ranging from St James’ Park in Newcastle to Sandy Park in Exeter.
So, while maintaining Leinster’s chase for silverware on two fronts and beginning the process of handpicking his backroom team while perhaps contributing to the squad for Ireland’s two-match tour of the Americas, Joe Schmidt can now start planning ahead for the 2015 World Cup.
