England hero Lawrence Dallaglio comes to St James" Park to announce Rugby ...

England rugby hero Lawrence Dallaglio thundered into Newcastle to mark 500 days until the start of next year’s Rugby World Cup.

The 2003 World Cup winning forward stood on the St James’ Park turf to announce ticket sale dates for the tournament and speak of his excitement at the coming to the Toon.

“This is a special stadium, it’s a special city and it’s going to be an amazing atmosphere here for rugby,” he said.

“Imagining this place full-up with 52,000 people would be incredible. The Geordies have always put on a very special and unique match day atmosphere and I’m sure they would do exactly the same for the Rugby World Cup.

“There’s some huge games being played here, this is one of the iconic stadiums and I’m sure the whole of the North East will really get behind it.”

St James’ Park will host three games during the six-week tournament, including South Africa v Scotland on October 3 and the champions New Zealand’s clash with Tonga on October 9.

New Zealand won the tournament on home soil in 2011, and Dallaglio is hoping England can do the same in 2015.

“The host nation is a double-edged sword – there’s lots of pressure but there’s also a huge amount of support and I don’t think any of the sides would relish playing the host nation,” he said.

“They’ve got a tough group with Wales and Australia but they’ve beaten Wales this year finally and they’ve beaten Australia. The only team they haven’t beaten under Stuart Lancaster is South Africa.

“They’ve got a tough tour of New Zealand coming up, where I think they’ll learn a lot about themselves as individuals and as a group but I’m confident that we will be competitive and I’m sure they’ll do themselves proud.

“I think the competition for places in every position is getting bigger and bigger.”

Nick Forbes, Newcastle City Council leader said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity to show off everything we have to offer here to the rest of the world. We’re welcoming fans from all corners of the globe and we’re going to give them a big Geordie welcome.”

Tickets will go on sale from September 12 this year via an application window, which closes on September 29.

Article source: http://www.skysports.com/rugbyleague/match_report/0,,11070_3721823,00.html

England hero Lawrence Dallaglio comes to St James" Park to announce Rugby ...