On 18th September 2015 the Rugby World Cup will kick off at Twickenham, concluding 45 days later on 31st October with the Rugby World Cup Final. On the 27th November 2013 we will be laying out our ticketing strategy that has been approved by the Rugby World Cup Ltd. Board, including timelines for ticket sales and the ticket prices.

England 2015 are committed to reward the games’ most loyal supporters with priority ticket access to all 48 world cup matches, including England fixtures, matches at all 13 venues and the knock-out phase and I am delighted to be able to advise you that 500,000 tickets will be made available in May/ June 2014 to clubs and organisations that are members of the RFU. These tickets will include every match at every venue from the pool matches through to the final.

We will be communicating the detail and numbers of tickets to each club in the New Year. The process will be different to the regular ticket distribution process used by the RFU for International matches at Twickenham. In particular,

- The ticket allocation per Club will be based on the 2014 Six Nations International match allocation methodology.

- Clubs will have the opportunity for members to purchase tickets for all 10 Twickenham matches and for the 38 matches at other venues around the country.

- Allocations per Club per match at Twickenham will be lower than for RFU International matches (England 2015 have entitlement to 50% of tickets at each fixture) but overall members of each clubs will have the option to purchase many more tickets than in a regular year.

- Specific conditions of use will be put in place including that tickets cannot be used in sponsorship, commercial, or hospitality programmes.

- The administration of the sale, collection of payment, and ticket fulfilment will be managed in full by England 2015 via the official Rugby World Cup 2015 ticketing system.

- Tickets will be sold directly to the club members, the end user.

- Tickets will be delivered to the club member’s home address.

- There will be a ticket limit per match of 4 tickets per member.

The original plan was that tickets would all be sold on the open market but the RFU argued successfully for tickets to be available to what they refer to as 'The Rugby Family'. As can be seen from their circulation, while tickets are available to club members, only 50% of normal allocation will go to clubs so the opportunities for members will be very restricted. How this will be administered is not known at this stage but the World Cup doesn't seem to be almost two years away when ticket prices and kick off times are published.

The cost of tickets, particularly at Twickenham, have caused a few raised eyebrows, but at least for some early Pool matches, there are significant reductions for children which is a welcome change from the norm.

Members will be kept informed through the website of all World Cup 2015 news.