England and Italy will play a World Cup warmup match at Newcastle.getty images
England's national rugby team will play a World Cup warmup game against Italy in Newcastle next summer, according to Alex Lowe of the LONDON TIMES. It will be the first time that the Rugby Football Union has taken a home game away from Twickenham since England played World Cup qualifiers against Italy and the Netherlands in Huddersfield in '98. The RFU was "exploring options" in Manchester -- the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford are bigger than St. James' Park, which has a capacity of 52,405 -- but Newcastle is "building its reputation as a rugby city." The ground hosted its first rugby internationals during the 2015 World Cup, and '19 "promises to be a blockbuster year for the city," with Newcastle to host the 2019 Champions Cup final in May and then an England game. The RFU had "always been against moving a match away from Twickenham because it would be sacrificing key revenue," with internationals at England's HQ generating about £10M ($13.2M). However, RFU CEO Steve Brown put the proposal on the table when he took over the role last year. Brown said, "It's a good thing. It's always a commercial challenge, but I think the case has been made for us considering more games in the north" (LONDON TIMES, 6/19).
