Welford Road: World Cup snub

Gloucester's Kingsholm is the only Aviva Premiership rugby ground on a list of 17 potential venues chosen by tournament organisers England Rugby 2015, with 12 Premier League and Football League grounds included as well as Wembley and the Olympic Stadium.

The home grounds of Manchester United, Newcastle, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Southampton have all been included on the list after expressing an interest in staging World Cup matches.

ER2015 have also named the Amex Stadium in Brighton, Bristol City's Ashton Gate, Pride Park in Derby, Coventry's Ricoh Arena, Elland Road in Leeds and stadiummk in Milton Keynes.

ER2015 will confirm the final list of 10-12 venues early in the new year, once the tournament match schedule has been formulated. The pool draw is being held on December 3 in London.

Welford Road, Leicester's home for 120 years, is the biggest club rugby stadium in the country but its facilities were not deemed to be of a high enough standard.

Leicester is still represented by the city's 32,000-capacity football stadium - but Tom has questioned why the Tigers' heritage and contribution to rugby has been overlooked.

"We are hugely disappointed to learn that Welford Road will not play a part in England's hosting of the Rugby World Cup in 2015," Tom said.

"Welford Road has hosted many, many major occasions over the years, including visits from South Africa, Australia and Argentina national teams in recent seasons.

"It is home to the best-supported and most successful club in the history of the professional game in this country and, as such, we believe it is worthy of Rugby World Cup status.

"Leicester Tigers has always been a forward-thinking and progressive club, and has played an important role in the development and promotion of the game in this country.

"Who can forget that both head coach and captain of England's World Cup-winning team in 2003 (Sir Clive Woodward and Martin Johnson), and several other members of the squad and backroom staff, spent major parts of their own careers in Leicester colours?

"The current England squad also contains a sizeable number of Leicester players, many of whom have been introduced to the sport as fans at Welford Road and have come through the club's academy structure to first team and then international honours.

"It is that kind of heritage and dedication to the development of the game that makes the name of Leicester Tigers and Welford Road stadium known throughout the rugby-playing world.

"Welford Road is the largest designated club rugby stadium in England, an iconic home of the sport in this country and home to the most successful club in the history of a thriving, competitive and successful league structure yet it will not be at the table when it comes to hosting a global rugby event in this country.

"That the organisers of RWC2015 do not think this an appropriate venue for its fixtures is disappointing and confusing both for the professional club game in this country and for its supporters.

"Leicester Tigers has the largest community of rugby supporters of any club in the country and the club invested £15million in building the new Caterpillar Stand in 2009 to take Welford Road's capacity up to 24,000.

"A programme of development will continue to improve facilities and the matchday experience for players, supporters and corporate guests.

"It is disappointing that this investment is not rewarded with World Cup status while many other venues on the proposed list do not show that level of commitment to our sport."

The 17-strong list of potential venues is completed by Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium.

Tom is not alone in arguing that the World Cup should be utilising more rugby grounds - but ER2015 have to sell 2.9million tickets in order to cover the £80million guarantee owed to the International Rugby Board.

Arsenal's Emirates Stadium was in the original bid document but it does not feature on the shortlist, replaced by the Olympic Stadium.

ER2015 are in talks with the Olympic Park Legacy Company over the future use of the stadium, which has obvious attractions following the success of London 2012.

Andy Cosslett, England Rugby 2015 chairman, said: "Our vision for Rugby World Cup 2015 is to ensure that we take this prestigious tournament to as many parts of the country as possible and we believe that the geographical spread of venues selected will enable us to maximise the reach of the tournament.

"In addition, we will be selecting further venues for training and team base camps that will ensure that the rugby community is at the very heart of Rugby World Cup 2015.

"We will now continue to work extremely closely with the venues, cities and stakeholders, including the Premier League and Football League, to plan the scheduling of matches and city hosting programmes to select a final list of up to 12 venues, which will be agreed by the early part of next year.

"We are confident that with the venues selected we will be able to reach our target of having up to 2.9 million tickets available, opening up the tournament to more people than ever before and in turn delivering the biggest and best Rugby World Cup that there has ever been.

"The process of choosing the long list of venues was very competitive and we would like to thank the venues and cities who we have met for their full co-operation, including the venues not selected, all of whom provided us with their fulsome assistance and information required to make our selection."

In contrast to Leicester, Northampton have given their full backing to the selection of Milton Keynes as a potential host city.

The Saints have used stadiummk for some of their big Heineken Cup matches before.

Chief executive Allan Robson said: "The Rugby World Cup is a prestigious global sporting event and it is right that England Rugby 2015 demand the highest standard of its stadiums.

"stadiummk certainly fits into that category, as we know from our own experiences playing there in the Heineken Cup and setting the venue's attendance record.

"In an ideal world Franklin's Gardens would be a host stadium in its own right, but the sheer scale of the Rugby World Cup means that this is not possible.

"However we do not want our supporters to miss out on having tournament matches within easy reach, which is why we responded positively to the request for backing by getting fully behind Milton Keynes's bid.''

The long list was compiled following an evaluation process undertaken by ER2015 in collaboration with Rugby World Cup Ltd (RWCL), host broadcaster ITV and commercial stakeholders.

World Cup organisers expect 400,000 visitors into England during the tournament and they need an average gate of around 60,000 to break even.

That is why the use of venues such as Wembley, Old Trafford, the Sports Direct Arena and the Olympic Stadium is vital to the success of the tournament.

Bernard Lapasset, RWCL chairman, said: "Rugby World Cup Ltd is delighted with the range of locations and iconic stadia, steeped in sporting folklore, that have been selected as potential Rugby World Cup 2015 match venues.

"We are very fortunate that England possesses some of the finest sporting venues in the world.

"We have developed a strong working partnership with ER2015 and planning and preparation continues to advance ahead of schedule. We are sure that this selection of sporting venues will capture the imagination of rugby and sport fans not just in England but all over the world.

"It is a testament to the strength of the Rugby World Cup brand that there has been such strong interest from a wide range of English cities and venues to host and be a part of the world's third-largest sporting event.

"Indeed, with a little under three years to go until the world's best players and their fans gather in England, we are confident that the eighth chapter in the remarkable Rugby World Cup story will be a wonderful success, and an event that England and the global rugby family will be proud of."