St. James' Park Selected For Rugby World Cup

By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor

St. James' Park has been selected as one of the venues for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

On Thursday morning it was announced that the 52,409-seater stadium will play host to three matches featuring some of the world's best sides during October 2015.

On Saturday, 3rd October 2015, South Africa will take on Scotland in Pool B, followed by New Zealand against Tonga in Pool C on Friday, 9th October 2015.

And the Tyneside-based fixtures will be completed just 24 hours later as Samoa face Scotland in Pool B on Saturday, 10th October 2015.

The 13 match venues and host cities selected are: St. James' Park (Newcastle), Twickenham Stadium (London), Wembley Stadium (London), Olympic Stadium (London), Millennium Stadium (Cardiff), Manchester City Stadium (Manchester), Elland Road (Leeds), Leicester City Stadium (Leicester), Villa Park (Birmingham), Kingsholm Stadium (Gloucester), stadiummk (Milton Keynes), Brighton Community Stadium (Brighton) and Sandy Park (Exeter).

Twenty-five matches will be played in dedicated rugby venues, seven in multi-event stadia and 16 in football venues, with more than two million tickets available.

The Tournament will open at Twickenham Stadium on Friday, 18th September 2015, where England will face Oceania 1, confirmed at the close of the qualification process in 2014.

In addition to a selection of pool games, Twickenham Stadium will also host two quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final on 31st October. Two quarter-finals will also be played in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium and the bronze final will be hosted at the Olympic Stadium.