The song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" reverberated around Twickenham Saturday night as the rugby world cup kicked off, according to David Brown of the LONDON TIMES. Prince Harry "opened the seven-week tournament with a rousing speech praising the values of rugby as uniting the nation as an estimated one million fans descended on London for the start of the tournament." A "scrappy match hampered by a slippery pitch did little to dent the enthusiasm of the 80,015 spectators inside the stadium." Harry, honorary president of England 2015, "told the opening ceremony broadcast to a worldwide television audience of up to 420 million that there would be moments from tournament that would remain with the spectators for the rest of their lives." The prince, "who played rugby at Eton, acknowledged the dramatic changes to the game in his lifetime but said that rugby remained a game founded on code of values." He said, "Values which are as important today, both on and off the field of play, as they have ever been." British PM David Cameron, who also attended, said that "the tournament would leave a lasting legacy around the world." He said, "The sporting drama of the coming weeks will inspire tens of thousands more people to pick up a rugby ball." Some spectators "struggled to reach the stadium as a broken train on the line from Waterloo to Twickenham led to delays of up to half an hour." Bars across the country "were packed last night and Tesco said it expected alcohol sales to increase by more than a third" (LONDON TIMES, 9/19). REUTERS' Ossian Shine wrote the Rugby World Cup "exploded into life with a pyrotechnic extravaganza." Lights "dimmed as deafening fireworks exploded into the London night sky and drummers thundered their beat around the cavernous arena." An enormous rugby ball sat center stage "among the huge clods of earth and turf, and was flanked by 20 former greats representing each of the World Cup's 20 finalist nations." World Rugby Chair Bernard Lapasset declared the event open with the words, "Let the tournament begin." Almost half a million tourists "are expected to visit Britain for the tournament, whose four dozen matches involving 20 teams will take in traditional rugby venues like Cardiff and Gloucester, but also football grounds in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle." The six-week event "is being billed as the first billion dollar rugby festival" (REUTERS, 9/18).
A BIG DEAL: In London, Allen-Mills & Hookham wrote the opening ceremony was "watched by an estimated" 7.56 million U.K. viewers. If the organizers of the Rugby World Cup 2015 are to be believed, this year’s tournament "is about a great deal more than chasing around a field with an oval pig bladder." After an unending series of sporting scandals -- from the rank corruption of FIFA to the doping crisis in world athletics -- rugby "is setting out its stall as the decent, honourable sport; the accessible, family-friendly game that no longer has a place for beer-swilling, vomit-stained, dwarf-tossing excess." There "is still, it must be said, some evidence of beer-swilling: Stuart Green, manager of the Cabbage Patch pub in Twickenham, said his staff sold 10,000 pints on Friday." Yet, rugby "is certainly changing." It "now claims to be more welcoming than football, more exciting than test cricket, and matches any major sport for the entertainment value of its Wags, one of whom once showed off her cooking skills by posing in a negligee carrying a roast chicken." Beer and beautiful women apart, rugby’s outreach strategies "are clearly paying off." There "were more than 650,000 applications for a single World Cup match at Twickenham; almost half a million visitors drawn to Britain by the tournament;" up to £1B ($1.5M) added to the U.K. economy; and a potential TV audience estimated at 4 billion in 207 countries and territories (SUNDAY TIMES, 9/19).
BONUSES FOR LES BLEUS: SPORTUNE reported France's national team players will each receive bonuses worth €180,000 ($203,000) if they win the final, €140,000 ($158,000) for second place in the final, and €120,000 ($135,000) for third place. The total possible purse worth €5.6M ($6.3M) is less than that of the 2011 Rugby World Cup which saw France lose to New Zealand in the final (SPORTUNE, 9/19).
