NEWCASTLE UNITED'S St James' Park has been chosen a one of the 13 host venues for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, but Sunderland's Stadium of Light has missed out.
England Rugby 2015 (ER 2015) and Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) today announced the full list of match venues and published the match schedule for the tournament, which kicks off at Twickenham Stadium on Friday, September 18, 2015, where England will face Oceania 1.
Both St James' Park and the Stadium of Light were included on the original long list of potential venues, but the Wearside stadium has missed out.
In total, eight of the venues chosen are football stadiums with Wembley Stadium and Manchester City's Etihad Stadium amongst those included.
St James' Park, which was a host venue for the London 2012 Olympic football tournament venue, will host three group games.
South Africa v Scotland is the first match in the North-East on October 3, while Samoa v Scotland follow on October 10 and New Zealand v Toga on November 9.
The 13 match venues and host cities selected are:
- Twickenham Stadium (London)
- Wembley Stadium (London)
- Olympic Stadium (London)
- Millennium Stadium (Cardiff)
- Manchester City Stadium (Manchester)
- St James' Park (Newcastle)
- Elland Road (Leeds)
- Leicester City Stadium (Leicester)
- Villa Park (Birmingham)
- Kingsholm Stadium (Gloucester)
- stadiummk (Milton Keynes)
- Brighton Community Stadium (Brighton)
- Sandy Park (Exeter)
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