England’s opponents in the opening match of a Rugby World Cup that its organisers hope and expect will grip the nation were on Thursday welcomed with a special ceremony at Hampton Court Palace .
The atmosphere as Fiji were officially welcomed was more sedate than that which will grip Twickenham next Friday, with spectators at England’s final warm-up match against Ireland giving notice that they planned to make the most of home advantage and loudly back Stuart Lancaster’s side in the so-called pool of death.
The first of 20 welcoming ceremonies for the competing teams around the country – New Zealand will take their bow at the Tower of London on Friday, while Samoa and Japan are welcomed to Brighton – the conceit is one of several ideas imported from the London 2012 Olympics designed to make the tournament more than the sum of its parts. With the trophy tour all but complete, bar a final lap of the capital, and the endless phoney war almost over, the attention of fans will turn to the practicalities.
Has it sold out?
Not quite. Most but not quite all of the 2.4m tickets have been sold. As of Thursday afternoon, there were still 50,000 tickets available for 33 of the 48 matches, including England’s final group game against Uruguay in Manchester and the third quarter-final at the Millennium Stadium. Every venue still has some tickets left, with prices from £35. Official hospitality packages also remain on sale. There have been some complaints about the often eye-watering prices but organisers claim they have done all they can within the parameters of a model that requires them to return at least £80m to World Rugby to reinvest in growing the game internationally. That informed a strategy that favoured large football grounds over cramped, atmospheric rugby strongholds and ramped up prices at the top end (up to £715) but pegged them low for some group matches at the bottom end (£7 for kids and £15 for adults).
How can I go about getting a ticket?
The best advice is to keep your eye on the official website (tickets.rugbyworldcup.com). The final batch of unused hospitality tickets were handed back by World Rugby at the back end of last week, releasing thousands more tickets on to the market. The welcome introduction of an official resale market for those who find themselves unable to use their ticket has created a fluid situation whereby tickets, even for long sold-out England matches, could reappear on the site at any time. While that requires patience and heavy use of the refresh button, it is your best route to a ticket. Organisers have long promised a sell-out – it remains to be seen if that is technically the case.
What about touts?
England Rugby 2015 failed with early efforts to persuade the government that new legislation was required to outlaw the resale of Rugby World Cup tickets. That made it inevitable that secondary ticketing sites would be flooded with tickets and so it has proved. The shadow culture secretary, Chris Bryant, is among the latest to protest at prices of up to £5,000 a pair for the final, with the recently passed Consumer Rights Act – which forces sites to display transparent ticket information – having little effect in practice. The sites themselves protest they are offering a valuable service to the consumer but organisers have endlessly warned that they reserve the right to deny entry if tickets are resold.
What are organisers most worried about?
Transport, transport and transport. Specifically, the Friday night at Twickenham and the capacity crowd that will converge on HQ for the opening ceremony and the match with Fiji. Long flagged as a potential problem, commuters are being bombarded with messages advising them to change their route and special buses have been laid on from the roundabout next to Twickenham to Hounslow or all the way back to Waterloo. Whether the rail network is up to the challenge is the big outstanding question. In the worst-case scenario, fans from around the country will be bedding down at Waterloo having missed connecting trains.
Never straightforward from a transport point of view, the problems will be doubled by the 8pm kick-off time and the fact that a proportion of ticket holders will not be familiar with the environs. Fans are being asked to arrive early, to plan their journeys meticulously by checking the venue guides online and keep checking official feeds on social media. If all goes fine, it will set the tone for the tournament. If not, problems may begin to multiply.
What if I haven’t got a ticket?
Organisers and the RFU are determined the tournament will grip the entire nation, rugby fans and non-believers alike. If that is to happen the blanket coverage on ITV and BBC radio will play a major role. For six weeks, the sport will have an unprecedented hold on the nation’s media. ITV, in particular, is determined to draw mass audiences in weekend prime time and use the tournament as a launch pad for its Six Nations rights deal from next year. Its line-up includes the England 2003 veterans Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Robinson and the coach who led them to that victory, Sir Clive Woodward. They will show every match live, with most on ITV1 and a handful on ITV4. Meanwhile there will be fanzones in the host cities.
Are there any innovations within the stadiums?
Specially designed video sequences will explain the laws of rugby for the uninitiated, with particular attention on those who may be used to watching the sport on television but rarely see it in the flesh. Again, organisers have taken their cue from London 2012, where similar guides were a hit. Ref!Link headsets will include an option for live commentary as well as the referee for the first time. And Hawk-Eye technology will be used for the first time to strengthen the accuracy of the TMO decision-making process.
