Rugby Union World Cup hosted by England starts this weekend at Twickenham

THE 2015 Rugby World Cup, the eighth to be held, starts on Friday September 18, with the opening match at Twickenham between the host team England and Fiji.

There are 20 nations competing in the championship which runs until October 31 and England appear in the so called ‘group of death’ against Australia, Fiji, Uruguay and Wales with the top two teams in each group moving forward to the next round.

Matches will be played at 13 different grounds of which seven belong to football clubs, two belong to rugby clubs and the others are considered specialist stadiums, including the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, chosen due to the capacity, situation and very high quality of the site.

Although ITV will be the UK broadcaster of the matches and BBC radio will also transmit reports, latest information suggests that only Movistar+ will show any of the matches in Spain.

Hopefully England, who are second favourites after New Zealand with the bookmakers, will survive to reach the final at Twickenham – often referred to as the home of rugby – if only for those loyal fans who have paid between £150 (€205) and £715 (€975) for a ticket.