Bristol stadium to miss out on Rugby World Cup

Bristol will not host any games in the 2015 Rugby World Cup if England’s bid is successful.

It had been widely speculated that Bristol City’s new stadium at Ashton Vale would host pool games if England won the bid to host the tournament in nine years’ time.

But a list of venues submitted by the Rugby Football Union today did not include City’s new stadium, even though seven club football grounds are listed.

They are Liverpool’s Anfield, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Manchester United’s Old Trafford, Southampton’s St Mary’s, Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena, Leeds United’s Elland Road and Newcastle United’s St James’ Park.

The other venues on the list are Twickenham, Wembley Stadium, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, Gloucester’s Kingsholm and Leicester’s Welford Road.

The semi-finals and final would all be played at Twickenham, with the third-place play-off taking place at the Emirates Stadium.

RFU chief executive Francis Baron said: “In 2015 it will be 24 years since England last hosted a Rugby World Cup and we believe the time is right. The RFU is 100 per cent committed to delivering an outstanding RWC 2015. These are turbulent and difficult times but we believe the bid we have put together represents a low risk but high potential return.

“The combined capacity of our chosen stadia is in the region of 700,000 seats. Our target is to sell 3 million seats, that’s a 30 per cent increase on France 2007.”