After being fortunate enough to ensnare tickets for the opening match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup at Twickenham, and feasting on the near wall-to-wall ITV coverage from the opening weekend of games, I feel like a spoilt child at Christmas were I genuinely feel this could be the best ever tournament. But there are two things about the stadia being used which slightly rankle.
Firstly, this is supposed to be a World Cup hosted in England, probably the world’s richest rugby nation blessed with a plethora of international-standard rugby (union and league) and football stadia, so why is Cardiff’s Millennium stadium being used? Nobody doubts its unique atmosphere and size, but it gifts Wales an unfair advantage of two home games, when they should be on the same level playing field as every other nation, bar the hosts England. As I’m sure Scotland and Ireland would love the opportunity to play two pool games at Murrayfield and Croke Park respectively.
And this leads directly into my second point, about the paltry number of RWC 2015 games being shared with, hosted by and played in the North of England. Beyond the Midland counties, a mere six games from 48 are being played in the ‘North’ – at Elland Road in Leeds, the Manchester City Stadium and St James’ Park in Newcastle. Whilst the organisers are busy gifting six matches to the Millennium stadium, it’s frankly a disgraceful number to reward sporting fans with in the North of the country and an almost moronic missed opportunity to grow the sport beyond its traditional Southern strongholds. If the RFU and tournament organisers were really serious about ‘growing’ the sport, spreading the rugby gospel and attracting new fans, they’d forget about the pound signs associated with filling the Millennium stadium and instead focus on giving the people of Northern England a greater slice of the tournament.
iheartsport 