2015 Rugby World Cup Is Too Focused on London and the South

The 2015 Rugby World Cup, hosted by England, is under a year away, and the first round for applying for tickets for the tournament closes Monday. Rugby is a sport with a decent track record at promoting its expansion, but the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) have missed a trick with the venues chosen because the majority of matches will be played in the capital and the south.

The tournament is far too London-centric. Eight of the World Cup’s premier matches will be played at England Rugby’s headquarters, Twickenham. While this great stadium in southwest London is the heart of English rugby—some would say the world—the World Cup provided the opportunity to broaden exposure and access to top-level rugby in England.

Wembley, another London venue, hosts one of the more appealing pool-stage matches, World Champions New Zealand against Argentina, and the 2012 Olympic Stadium will see the third-place play-off.

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Unlike the Olympic Games, the social benefits of the Rugby World Cup will not be as apparent as the redevelopment of the Stratford area around the 2012 Olympic Park has proved. As a result, the legacy of the World Cup should be greater grassroots involvement in the sport. However, the IRB and the RFU have instead sought to maximise their coffers.

Funds generated will be reinvested in the sport, but no amount of money can enthuse the young like seeing top-quality rugby played in their cities.

The proud rugby city of Leicester has been hard done by. One of the hotbeds of the English game and home to the Leicester Tigers, it will have to make do with Argentina-Tonga, Canada-Romania and Argentina-Namibia. To add to that, the city’s rugby ground, Welford Road, has been overlooked in favour of the Leicester City football stadium. The romance of the sport has been overlooked in favour of income generation.

When the venues were announced in October 2012, Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom noted, as per Chris Foy of the Daily Mail:

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We are hugely disappointed. Welford Road has hosted many major occasions, including visits from South Africa, Australia and Argentina in recent seasons. 

Leicester has played an important role in the development and promotion of the game in this country. Welford Road is the largest designated club rugby stadium in England and home to the most successful club in the history of a thriving league. 

That the organisers do not think this an appropriate venue is disappointing and confusing. Leicester have invested £15m in the new Caterpillar Stand in 2009. A programme of development will continue. It is disappointing that this is not rewarded while many other venues on the list do not show that level of commitment to our sport.

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And the north of England hardly gets a look in. The venues chosen are all football grounds, and availability was not helped by the Premier League and Championship season. Leeds United’s Elland Road hosts just two pool matches.

Newcastle’s St James' Park has a stronger appeal. Sensibly, because of geographic proximity, Scotland will play two pool matches there, and the stadium will also see New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa and Tonga. Meanwhile, Manchester City’s Etihad (to be called the Manchester City Stadium), has one fixture, England against a qualifier.

The stadia in London are among the biggest and best in the world, but the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England will lose any hope of being a national event because of the focus on the capital and the south. The IRB and the RFU have opted to maximise the returns on their investments, but having done so, they will need to be careful not to lose the soul of the tournament and the sport.