The Rugby World Cup is coming to the Northwest

The organisers of the Rugby World Cup need to be congratulated on the quality of the event so far. There has been some of the normal noise:

• The draw
• Travel into and out of the Millennium and Twickenham Stadiums
• The Officials but particularly the TMO

The public in the UK are being served up a major sporting event on their door step and they have embraced it. England Rugby 2015 announced that 568,000 fans had attended the Fanzones alone. This augurs well for the continued development of Rugby Union.

We in the Northwest seem to have been particularly short of World Cup Rugby; the one and only game is this Saturday evening in Manchester featuring England versus Uruguay. The  Manchester fanzone is based in Albert Square and the game itself is at the home of Manchester City FC, the Etihad Stadium.

It is difficult to understand why the north west is only hosting one game but we do not understand why it is on the same day and in the same city as the Rugby League Grand Final. The game itself is now almost irrelevant and with Uruguay playing today against Fiji, it will be an enormous ask for the 20th ranked team to recover in time.

As for England, it’s a team with eight changes. The players being brought in include Slade and Nowell. The England Coach has been under intense scrutiny over the last 18 days and at today’s press conference he seemed to be focussed on filling the stadium.

It is vitally important that the stadium is full. Firstly fans have paid £100’s for tickets in advance, the young fans who attend are looking for new heroes to follow and rugby in the North West needs support.

The northwest has one premiership side, Sale Sharks. Sadly none of their players made the England World Cup squad. There are no Championship teams in the North West and only one in National 1; Fylde RUFC. In National 2 North there is better representation:

• Preston Grasshoppers
• Chester
• Caldy
• Sale FC
• Sedgley Park
• Macclesfield

The presence of only Sale Sharks and the absence of a Championship team leaves the region short of opportunities for talented young players and results in a player migration south. In addition the region is one of the heartlands for Rugby League and has a massive number of professional football clubs. The competition for players is immense.

The region is blessed with some very strong Universities but none play in the BUCS Premier A; the highest ranked being Manchester University in Premier North B. The regions schools and colleges offer up some strong names:

• Sedbergh
• Lancaster RGS
• Kirkham GS
• Hutton GS
• Merchant Taylors Crosby
• Myeerscough College

The North West needed more than one Rugby World Cup game to help promote the game; to have to compete with Rugby League’s Grand Final seems odd and to have Stuart Lancaster having to over promote the England game in Manchester is painful to listen.

It’s been tough a tough few days for Lancaster and being asked to head up venue marketing during press conferences seems inappropriate.