Big days and nights in union

SPORTS tournaments and big nights in go hand in hand and with every match in the 2015 Rugby World Cup being shown live on ITV there are going to be many opportunities for big nights in (or afternoons in some cases) between 18 September and 31 October.
The organiser of the 2015 tournament says it’s the third biggest sporting event in the world – behind the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. The schedule involves 20 nations in four pools then the winner and runner-up from each pool go into the knock-out stages.
The Rugby World Cup is said to have attracted a worldwide television audience of 300 million for the inaugural 1987 tournament and hit 4bn during the 2007 tournament in France, with 33m watching that year’s final.
Scotland has played in every Rugby World Cup and recorded its best finish in 1991 with fourth place. The Scots squad has qualified for the quarter-finals in every tournament, except the most recent, in 2011.
This year we’ve been drawn in Pool B with Japan, USA, South Africa and Samoa. The full schedule is on this page and we’ve highlighted the Scottish pool matches to help retailers plan ahead.
Outside of the Scotland matches some of the most attractive pool matches are likely to be: England v Wales on the evening of Saturday 26 September; England v Australia on the evening of Saturday 3 October; Australia v Wales on Saturday 10 October; and France v Ireland on Sunday 11 October.
On page 60 we look at some of the marketing and promotional work being planned by key brands for the period of Rugby World Cup.

 

Pool

Date

Kick-off

Venue

Match

1

A

Fri 18 Sept

20:00

Twickenham, London

England v Fiji

2

C

Sat 19 Sept

12:00

Gloucester

Tonga v Georgia

3

D

 

14:30

Cardiff

Ireland v Canada

4

B

 

16:45

Brighton

South Africa v Japan

5

D

 

20:00

Twickenham, London

France v Italy

6

B

Sun 20 Sept

12:00

Brighton

Samoa v USA

7

A

 

14:30

Cardiff

Wales v Uruguay

8

C

 

16:45

Wembley, London

New Zealand v Argentina

9

B

Wed 23 Sept

14:30

Gloucester

SCOTLAND v Japan

10

A

 

16:45

Cardiff

Australia v Fiji

11

D

 

20:00

Olympic Park, London

France v Romania

12

C

Thu 24 Sept

20:00

Olympic Park, London

New Zealand v Namibia

13

C

Fri 25 Sept

16:45

Gloucester

Argentina v Georgia

14

D

Sat 26 Sept

14:30

Leeds

Italy v Canada

15

B

 

16:45

Birmingham

South Africa v Samoa

16

A

 

20:00

Twickenham, London

England v Wales

17

A

Sun 27 Sept

12:00

Birmingham

Australia v Uruguay

18

B

 

14:30

Leeds

SCOTLAND v USA

19

D

 

16:45

Wembley, London

Ireland v Romania

20

C

Tue 29 Sept

16:45

Exeter

Tonga v Namibia

21

A

Thu 1 Oct

16:45

Cardiff

Wales v Fiji

22

D

 

20:00

Milton Keynes

France v Canada

23

C

Fri 2 Oct

20:00

Cardiff

New Zealand v Georgia

24

B

Sat 3 Oct

14:30

Milton Keynes

Samoa v Japan

25

B

 

16:45

Newcastle

South Africa v SCOTLAND

26

A

 

20:00

Twickenham, London

England v Australia

27

C

Sun 4 Oct

14:30

Leicester

Argentina v Tonga

28

D

 

16:45

Olympic Park , London

Ireland v Italy

29

D

Tue 6 Oct

16:45

Leicester

Canada v Romania

30

A

 

20:00

Milton Keynes

Fiji v Uruguay

31

B

Wed 7 Oct

16:45

Olympic Park, London

South Africa v USA

32

C

 

20:00

Exeter

Namibia v Georgia

33

C

Fri 9 Oct

20:00

Newcastle

New Zealand v Tonga

34

B

Sat 10 Oct

14:30

Newcastle

Samoa v SCOTLAND

35

A

 

16:45

Twickenham, London

Australia v Wales

36

A

 

20:00

Manchester

England v Uruguay

37

C

Sun 11 Oct

12:00

Leicester

Argentina v Namibia

38

D

 

14:30

Exeter

Italy v Romania

39

D

 

16:45

Cardiff

France v Ireland

40

B

 

20:00

Gloucester

USA v Japan

41

 

Sat 17 Oct

16:00

Twickenham, London

Quarter-final 1

42

 

 

20:00

Cardiff

Quarter-final 2

43

 

Sun 18 Oct

13:00

Cardiff

Quarter-final 3

44

 

 

16:00

Twickenham, London

Quarter-final 4

45

 

Sat 24 Oct

16:00

Twickenham, London

Semi-final 1

46

 

Sun 25 Oct

16:00

Twickenham, London

Semi-final 2

47

 

Fri 30 Oct

20:00

Olympic Park, London

Bronze final

48

 

Sat 31 Oct

16:00

Twickenham, London

FINAL