THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS


'Clouds in the north' are a concern for World Cup
With 100 days to go until tournament kicks off, French organisers in buoyant mood but admit to worries about Scotland and Wales
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THERE are now only 100 days to go before the Rugby World Cup, and, just as the 20 competing countries should know their build-up plans, so the organisers must by now have a fair idea of how their own preparations are going.

Speaking in Paris last week, Bernard Lapasset, the president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and head of the RWC 2007 organising committee, said he was confident that everything was progressing according to schedule.

Lapasset and his colleagues are particularly proud that they are hosting the first Rugby World Cup to be hosted by a non-English-speaking country, and they are convinced that the French public as a whole are firmly behind the tournament.

To illustrate as much, Lapasset displayed a map of France and the British Isles. Alongside the map was a list of the 12 venues - the ten in France, plus Murrayfield and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium - was the percentage of tickets sold for each.

Every French venue was well over the 50 per cent mark, with the best two or three already approaching 80 per cent. Cardiff, by contrast, was hovering around halfway, while Murrayfield was bottom with a sale of 46 per cent.

Beside each venue was a weather symbol: blazing sunshine on the continent, less favourable conditions in the British Isles. Lapasset did not go out of his way to stress the negative, but after expressing his pleasure at the response in his own country, he did mention there were "a few clouds in the north".

To Scottish ears, the phrase was an unwelcome reminder of the last time matches in the tournament were held in this country - the 1999 event, when poor attendances and low-visibility marketing stood out by comparison with successful venues in England, Ireland, France and the then hosts, Wales.

There are understandable fears that such a flop could recur, especially given the general state of the sport in Scotland at present.

Yesterday, though, a spokesperson for the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) insisted that the percentage statistic used by Lapasset was misleading in that it failed to tell the whole story.

The authorities based at Murrayfield are also eager to explain to anyone who will listen that, while it is their stadium which is being used for two matches - Scotland's pool game against Romania on 18 September, then another against New Zealand five days later - they are not ultimately responsible for how successful those matches may be.

"Murrayfield will have a capacity for those two games of 65,000, as the first couple of rows will need to be taken out because of the height of some of the advertising," the spokesperson explained. "Our latest information from the organisers is that 14,500 tickets have been sold for Scotland v Romania, and 51,700 for the match against the All Blacks.

"That compares with 26,300 for the game against Portugal [in St Etienne on 9 September] and 29,100 for the last pool match against Italy [also in St Etienne, on 29 September].

"The capacity of St Etienne is 33,000, so you'll see that the matches being played there have already sold a high percentage of tickets.

"But you have to take the size of the stadium into account, and look at the actual demand and timing of a fixture and not just at a percentage. The Romania game, for example, is on a Tuesday night at 8pm, but it is selling on a regular basis.

"It's on target for an attendance of 16-17,000, one would have thought."

Left to decide for themselves, or invited to tell the organisers what would be best, the SRU would have opted for a slightly earlier kick-off for the Romania game, and would also have reduced prices for the match against the All Blacks. There appears, however, to have been a degree of inflexibility on the part of those organisers, who have preferred to have one system for the tournament as a whole rather than taking local conditions into account.

As New Zealand are the No 1 country in the world rankings and the biggest draw in the sport, their match with Scotland has been deemed to be in the top pricing category.

The cost of a ticket for this fixture will be the equivalent in sterling of the cost in euros for matches in the same category throughout France.

The SRU may receive a certain amount of flak for this, but they insist the matter is out of their hands.

"It really is the same as when a concert is held at Murrayfield. It's our stadium, and we provide the facilities, but it's not our event.

"The promoter brings the event to the stadium. In this case, the promoters are Rugby World Cup 2007, and the fact that our team, Scotland, are appearing in both events does not change that.

"Having said that, everybody at Scottish Rugby wants these games to be a success.

"Although they're not our games, it's an honour to have them here.

"And besides, the absolute priority for us is to attract a big crowd to back the Scotland team. So we're working with the World Cup organisers in every game we can."

The SRU's website is promoting 'Scotland's Summer of Rugby' - a season which begins this weekend with the seven-a-side tournament at Murrayfield, then continues with the two August Tests against Ireland and South Africa before culminating in the Rugby World Cup itself.

That is one way in which the World Cup matches are being promoted, while another, which should become visible shortly, will be a substantial marketing campaign throughout Edinburgh.

Again, RWC 2007 is officially responsible for promoting its event, but the SRU has been liasing with the organisers and with the City of Edinburgh Council about how best to promote the tournament.

The change of administration following this month's elections may have delayed a final agreement, but a substantial number of banners should soon start appearing on the streets.

"The dressing of the city for the Heineken Cup final was fantastic, and we're very keen to emulate that," the spokesperson added.

"RWC has been thinking along the same lines. We've facilitated their discussions with the council, and now we are simply waiting for the final plan to be agreed by the council."

This article was posted on 30-May-2007, 07:16 by Hugh Barrow.