World Cup heading for £50m bonus

Rugby World Cup organisers expect to clinch television contracts worth £50million for the next global jamboree, in Australasia in two years time.

With a £15m French deal already signed, negotiations for the UK rights indicate that the overall value for the tournament will be up by at least 50 per cent on two years ago.

The organisers have made two significant changes to the format. By dividing the 20 final-ists into four pools of five instead of five pools of four, the top two from each pool will advance to the last eight. And matches will be staged on an almost daily basis instead of being lumped together as happened two years ago.

In their television negotiations, the organ-isers will ensure that their showpiece event reaches the widest possible terrestrial audience - with matches involving Six Nations teams at 'consumerfriendly' times.