Rugby Football Union considering England games away from Twickenham - Ruck

Rugby Football Union considering England games away from Twickenham

RFU chief executive Steve Brown views future autumn series as another opportunity to take an international to the north but has ruled out the possibility of relocating a NatWest 6 Nations fixture away from Twickenham.

“The game needs to go to a different part of the country. There is no question it needs be more accessible — England needs to be more accessible full stop,” he said.



“There may well be some options that we look at with the World Cup warm-ups. There’s a good chance we’ll start to see us playing in different parts of the country.

“Even though the match was a dead rubber, we had great success with England playing in Manchester in the World Cup.

“There’s a great opportunity for us and we definitely have to do something about that. The key is picking the right game.


MORE STORIES:

“There are some real heartlands in the north-east and the north-west. There’s competition with football and rugby league at the community level, but there’s great history there too.”

He continued: “The other thing is to make it a regular feature. We don’t want it to just be a one-off and that’s the challenge. An autumn Test could be an option.

“It doesn’t have to be a football stadium but we had 55,000 for Uruguay in the World Cup. That’s the scale that we’ll be looking at.

“If we were to take a call to reduce our income, that’s less money to put back into the game, but it’s a balancing act because the game would be an investment to increase interest and participation.

“I have always said the key thing is to make this game relevant and modern but also respectful of its heritage and not lose any of that great stuff and the great fans that have come with that.”


VOTE FOR YOUR ALL-TIME SIX NATIONS XV