Organisers of this year's Rugby World Cup were on the defensive last night after it emerged that Scotland and Wales will be allowed to enjoy the comforts of home for a sizeable chunk of the tournament rather than being based entirely in France with the other competing nations.
The Scots and Welsh have been granted special permission to remain on home soil for eight consecutive days during the pool stages instead of commuting across the Channel from their respective training bases near St Etienne and Nantes for key fixtures at Murrayfield and Cardiff.
Scotland's squad will be out of France between September 16-24, allowing them a week of local preparation ahead of their Pool C encounter with New Zealand. The All Blacks will only be allowed to fly in 48 hours before the game at Murrayfield.
Wales will remain in Cardiff between September 13-21 following their game against Australia, offering them a subtle advantage over their pool rivals and possible quarter-final opponents England. A request from Twickenham to base the English squad at home and treat pool games in Lens and Paris as short-hop business trips was turned down last year.
The Scots, it is understood, also wanted to spend an even longer period at home but the organisers refused, clearly mindful of the criticism surrounding the unpopular decision to allocate games to non-French venues. The matches were a trade-off in return for support of France's bid to host the 2007 event. The committee have also risked alienating fans by announcing that 28 of the 48 games will be evening kick-offs. Many of the biggest matches, including England's pool game against South Africa, the semi-final and the final, will kick off at 9pm local time at the insistence of French television, forcing supporters to book overnight accommodation at inflated prices.
The last time the tournament was held in the northern hemisphere in 1999, only 12 of the 41 matches were night matches but a Rugby World Cup spokesman said: "Ticket sales are already up to 1.5m and, regardless of the kick-off times, people want to watch these games. They are voting with their wallets."
There are, however, scheduling anomalies which appear to favour certain teams. New Zealand and Australia do not have a floodlit pool game between them while Ireland will scarcely see the light of day during the tournament. England's earliest kick-off will be at 4pm against Samoa in Nantes while, apart from the two Marseille quarter-finals, the knock-out phases will be played entirely under lights.
