OLYMPIC RING TO IT

LONDON’S Olympic Stadium will host five games at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Twickenham will stage the Friday night opener of the 20-team event on September 18, with hosts England taking on the winner of the Oceania qualifying competition.

They have also won their battle to play Wales in a Group A qualifier at HQ, where they will also take on Australia.

England are guaranteed a bumper crowd at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, where they play a group match against a qualifier, Old Trafford having been withdrawn.

Eight football stadiums, including Wembley and Villa Park, will be used.

by IAIN STEWART Scotland will play group games at Newcastle and Leeds.

The Olympic Stadium will host pool games involving South Africa, New Zealand and France, as well as Ireland against Italy on October 4 plus the bronze medal match on October 30.

Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, Gloucester’s Kingsholm and Exeter’s Sandy Park are the other rugby venues.

Of 48 matches 17 are in London, with 82,000capacity Twickenham hosting 10 games, including two quarterfinals, both semi-finals and the October 31 final.

Wembley will have two group games, including New Zealand v Argentina, but Coventry, Bristol, Derby, Southampton and Sunderland miss out.

Cardiff will host two of Wales’ qualifiers and two quarter-finals among its eight games. Wales also have to tackle Australia as well as England at Twickenham.

Organisers England Rugby 2015 must sell 2.9m tickets to cover the £80m guarantee owed to the International Rugby Board. Australia, England, Wales;

South Africa, Samoa, Scotland; New Zealand, Argentina , Tonga;

France, Ireland, Italy.