Too Quiet on the European Front

It has all gone very quiet on the European rugby front. Granted the major rugby focus is on the World Cup starting exactly a year hence, but lets not forget the post-Heineken Cup  kicks off in little over a month’s time, but would you know it?

We do have a fixture list-eventually, but launch details , sponsorship updates and hard media information have been worryingly sparse – the anticipatory drum roll reaches barely a whimper.

Look at the official website, and just one news item has appeared in the last month. This is a time of year when rugby fans should be getting ready for the new European kick-off under a hail of anticipatory information.

Fingers crossed that every thing turns out all right on the night.

Mike Miles

http://www.scrumdown.org.uk

Pst…Want a ticket for the World Cup Final?

rugbygroundtravels

Tickets for the 2015 Rugby World cup went on general sale last Friday and,with a sharp intake of breath, I began to place my order. It quickly became an exercise in controlled exasperation, and not only at the slow speed of the website, because it seemed that the lungs of rugby-loving folk were to be stretched by the high price and low availability of Twickenham tickets.

It’s the usual story. The corporate world takes its inflated allocation  and distributes tickets  to sponsors and “commercial partners.” What FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter would no doubt call the “Rugby Family”

But don’t worry. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph “Britain’s most notorious ticket fraudster” could sell you a ticket for up to £1750. And the general sale had not even began before tickets on the secondary market were being offered on other websites for up to £8850 – 44 times face…

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Pst…Want a ticket for the World Cup Final?

Tickets for the 2015 Rugby World cup went on general sale last Friday and,with a sharp intake of breath, I began to place my order. It quickly became an exercise in controlled exasperation, and not only at the slow speed of the website, because it seemed that the lungs of rugby-loving folk were to be stretched by the high price and low availability of Twickenham tickets.

It’s the usual story. The corporate world takes its inflated allocation  and distributes tickets  to sponsors and “commercial partners.” What FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter would no doubt call the “Rugby Family”

But don’t worry. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph “Britain’s most notorious ticket fraudster” could sell you a ticket for up to £1750. And the general sale had not even began before tickets on the secondary market were being offered on other websites for up to £8850 – 44 times face value.

We ordinary fans will no doubt be left to scrabble for the handful of tickets thrown by the RWC2015 Suits from the back of the Red Cross lorry

Mike Miles

http://www.scrumdown.org.uk

Fancy a bet on the Rugby?

Quentin Smith, the chairman of Premiership Rugby, believes that overseas gambling syndicates will struggle to infiltrate English club rugby. The reason…..”The margins are crazy, it’s why we haven’t had foreign betting syndicates taking a view.”

Results appear to bear him out. Last year 51% of the games were decided by seven points or fewer.

Mind you the results at Northampton and London Welsh might prompt a re-think…..

Mike Miles

http://www.scrumdown.org.uk.

Attendances don’t tell the whole story

The official attendance for the London Double Header at Twickenham on Saturday was 61,424. Its probably a good job that the official attendance wasn’t  based on the number in the ground at the end of the London Irish v Harlequins clash, a match described by one writer as complete dross.

There were 1,087 souls at the Richmond Athletic Ground,just a few miles down the road, to see London Scottish take on Rotherham Titans in the season’s opener of the rather grandly named Greene King IPA Championship. I was one of them.

On a warm,sunny afternoon Exiles skipper Mark Bright scored a hat trick of tries as his team put down an early marker in their play-off chase against direct rivals.And he wasn’t even named Man of the Match.

The air is thick with pundits reminding us that the Rugby World Cup is only a year away , and I guess every Premiership game between now and then will be examined against that background.

I can recommend the Richmond Athletic Ground as one place to get away from the hype.

 

Mike Miles

http://www.scrumdown.org.uk

 

RWC2015 Tickets and Fan zones

Tickets for Rugby World Cup 2015 go on sale this month via Ticketmaster. Lets hope they don’t encounter the same technical problems experienced by the recent Commonwealth Games

The most controversial method to obtain tickets  ( and supposedly contrary to RWC 2015’s terms and conditions) is from travel and hospitality packages that have been on sale since the beginning of the year. Tickets have already found their way on to the secondary market at a huge markup – and no doubt others will follow after September.

 

RWC2015 have announced that most of the host cities will have Fan Zones,presumably similar to those at recent soccer World Cups.They have also said that venues will have dedicated Rugby World food and drink outlets serving dishes that celebrate the best of English cuisine and in some cases carry a rugby theme……..presumably at World Cup prices.

But  will fans be allowed to take their own food and drink into the stadium? Attending the World Cup in Germany in 2006 I can remember being forced to discard my bottles of water on a hot day before I could enter the stadium, and then being obliged to buy more inside to put more money into FIFA’s bulging coffers.

 

Mike Miles

http://www.scrumdown.org.uk

Wasps to be sent to Coventry?

Wasps have dropped London from their name for the forthcoming season, and are now believed to be drawing up plans to relocate the club away from Wycombe to the West Midlands, specifically Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.Wasps are no stranger to the ground, having played a number of Heineken Cup games there in the past.

Land Rover have their headquarters in the area, and the new club sponsors are Land Rover owners Tata Motors Limited

Wasps would not be the only rugby team to have shifted location to find a permanent home in recent years, but there is no denying that those clubs who are leading such a nomadic existence are the one who find it harder to create the home atmosphere found in the West of England or Leicester.

One can appreciate Wasps’ need to move and find a more suitable home, but surely it should be closed to their traditional home and not further away?

Mike Miles

http://www.scrumdown.org.uk

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