ITALY AND England have used the lure of their iconic football stadia in a bid to land the Rugby World Cup. The two hopeful nations along with Japan and South Africa travelled to Dublin yesterday to outline their bids to the International Rugby Board.

Italy, Japan and South Africa are bidding for both the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cup tournaments while England is hoping to stage the 2015 event.

The RFU bid team, who brought along 2003 World Cup winners, Lawrence Dallaglio and Will Greenwood, have guaranteed the use of Wembley Stadium, Manchester United’s Old Trafford, Liverpool’s Anfield and Arsenal’s The Emirates, while Italy announced they plan to host the final in Rome’s Olympic Stadium, venue for this season’s Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona. Italy also plans to use football grounds such as the San Siro in Milan and Turin’s Stadio delle Alpi.

The Italian government has passed its support of the Italian World Cup bid into law after reaching its first bipartisan agreement of the current administration. The government backing not only underwrites the €89 million tournament fee but also includes use of all the public stadia, with the World Cup to be given priority over Serie A.

The other English football stadia to be used in pool matches include St Mary’s stadium in Southampton, Elland Road in Leeds, Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena and Newcastle’s St James’ Park. It is also proposed Twickenham would host the final, but for the group games Gloucester’s Kingsholm and Leicester’s Welford Road are the only recognised club rugby grounds set to be used.

Each team gave a 30 minute presentation with the decision to host the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups to be made on July 28 in Dublin.