Rugby WC Rescheduling Finalised After Christchurch Withdrawn

A revised match schedule was announced yesterday, health | March 30, pharm developed by Rugby New Zealand 2011 (RNZ) in consultation with Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) for this year’s tournament following the decision to reallocate all matches from Christchurch following the devastating February 22 earthquake.

The new schedule will see three of the five rescheduled pool matches remain in the South Island. Nelson, vialis 40mg Dunedin and Invercargill will each host an additional match while the remaining two matches have been reallocated to Wellington and North Harbour.

As announced earlier this month, the two quarter-finals due to be played in Christchurch on October 8 and 9 will be played at Eden Park in Auckland.

The new fully enclosed Otago Stadium, a 30,000-capacity venue, has been added to the schedule as a World Cup host and will stage England’s Pool B games with Argentina and Georgia on September 10 and 18.

Australia’s clashes with Italy and Russia have been moved to Auckland and Nelson respectively, while Argentina’s game with Scotland will switch to Wellington. Operational reasons have also necessitated the transfer of one non-Christchurch match, Scotland versus Georgia, from Dunedin to Invercargill.

RNZ 2011 CEO Martin Snedden stated: “Our desire was always to transfer as many of the Christchurch pool matches as was reasonably possible to other existing South Island venues. At the same time we are very conscious that time is pressing, with just 163 days to go before the world’s third largest sporting event kicks off, so we have also sought to minimise disruptions to ensure as few teams and their supporters were affected as possible. This has meant minimising any changes to matches that weren’t originally scheduled for Christchurch.”

He continued: “While we know that our rescheduling decisions won’t please everyone, on balance, we have achieved the best possible result taking into account all relevant factors. We firmly believe that RWC 2011 will be a tournament which all New Zealanders can experience and be proud of and will continue the outstanding success of recent tournaments.”

Rugby World Cup Limited chairman Bernard Lapasset added: “We appreciate the patience shown by the teams and fans during this difficult period and are enormously grateful for the support and cooperation of all our partners during what has been a complex process.”