Late Nights for Rugby World Cup Finals

The semi finals and final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will be late night affairs, with kickoff times of 9pm.

This will accommodate television audiences in Europe, the 9pm kick offs equating to 8am timings in Britain and 9am in France.

Explaining the scheduling, International Rugby Board Chief Executive Mike Miller stated "I think people might be prepared to stay up to see the final."

Adding that the rugby community was not the only consideration, saying the World Cup gave the sport a chance every four years to showcase itself to non-fans, Miller noted "the later we can go in Europe, the more opportunity there is for people who would not normally watch rugby to see it and get hooked on it. So every minute is really important for us around the world."

Miller was recently in Auckland for the announcement of the match schedule and the pool match venues for the 20-nation tournament.

He had no doubt that the 2011 World Cup would be "a fantastic success", describing New Zealand as "the spiritual home of rugby".

Rugby New Zealand World Cup 2011 Ltd Chief Executive Martin Snedden said the kickoff time for the final was an issue that had provoked plenty of discussion with a balance having to be struck between what suited New Zealanders best and the fact that the World Cup was an international event.

Snedden said the third-place playoff at Eden Park and the two quarterfinals set down for Christchurch would begin at 8.30pm.

The two quarterfinals in Wellington would kick off earlier in the evening.

Other kickoff times were yet to be decided, but Snedden said basic principles had been put in place.

Pool matches under lights would start no later than 8.30pm on weekends and 7.30pm on weekday.

Also, 10 of the 40 pool matches, including probably the All Blacks' final pool A fixture in Wellington on 2nd October 2011 against one of the two qualifiers from the Americas would be in daytime.

Snedden also said there had been considerable debate about which match would open the tournament in Auckland on 9th September 2011 before the decision was reached on New Zealand versus Tonga.

Options had included the All Blacks against World Cup nemesis France, or following having defending champions South Africa start the tournament.

In the end, the philosophy of the 'Stadium of Four Million', on which New Zealand had made its successful bid to host the event, won out.

Snedden said New Zealand was a small nation, but one with a cultural diversity that was a strength.

He also said one of the features of past World Cup was how Pacific Island teams had so consistently risen to the occasion.

The venues for the knockout stage had been announced previously and today Snedden revealed that 13 stadiums would be used for the pool stages.

Auckland (Eden Park), Wellington and Christchurch have been allocated five pool matches each, while Albany on Auckland's North Shore, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Dunedin will each host three matches.

Whangarei, Nelson, Palmerston North, Napier and Invercargill will get two matches each.

The bidders that lost out were Tauranga, Queenstown and a third venue in the Auckland region, Mt Smart Stadium.

The schedule features a high-powered opening weekend which will see pool B heavyweights Argentina and England face off in Christchurch, and South Africa play Wales in a pool D clash in Wellington.

Image: Wellington's Westpac Stadium will host five pool matches during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.