It’s encouraging that the RFU has announced the eight venues to host matches in the 2025 World Cup. It shows that arrangements are well in hand for the first RWC to be held in England for fifteen years.
The eight are: Twickenham Stadium, Sandy Park Exeter, Salford Community Stadium Manchester and Franklin’s Gardens Northampton; Ashton Gate Bristol, the Amex Stadium Brighton, the Stadium of Light Sunderland and the Community Stadium York.
The last three are football grounds, which shows the ongoing weakness in rugby’s structures. It is not yet felt possible to place all the matches in dedicated rugby stadiums.
You could call that a curious effect of the decision of the Premiership League to insist on a minimum capacity of 10,000 for all its member clubs. The result has been for few to extend a stadium much beyond 10-15k. Leicester Tigers’ famous stadium, Mattioli Woods Welford Road, is currently the biggest at just under 26,000, but does not find favour this time round. Instead, Exeter and Bristol are once more teacher’s pets.
Apart from HQ, which had already been announced as the venue of the final, three of the other four have already hosted England internationals, though Ashton Gate is essentially a football ground that alternates between the two sports. It’s amusing to note that it was an unsuccessful applicant to stage matches in the 2015 RWC. By contrast, the Amex (more properly American Express) ground staged the most famous of all World Cup upsets when Japan beat South Africa. Who’s turn will it be this time? Who said: ‘the Black Ferns losing to Fiji’?
The odd one out is the Salford ground, home to the men’s Sale Sharks team, but not the women’s; they play at the CorpAcq Stadium in Sale.
It is highly significant that no fewer than three of the eight locations lie in the north of England. This can be seen as a deliberate attempt by the RFU to answer complaints that the North was being unfairly starved of Red Roses’ international matches. In recent years only Kingston Park, Newcastle has found favour. And for the first time since Castle Park Doncaster played host to the Red Roses (2018-21), a Yorkshire stadium is included.
Overall, there is a nice geographical balance: only one venue in London, two in the south-west, one on the south coast, one in the Midlands and the rest in the North.
So Northern Rugby does Matter, but it’s a bit late for at least one club.
