Scots, Welsh cool on Cup

From correspondents in Paris
August 23, 2007

MORE than two million tickets have been sold for the rugby union World Cup, which kicks off on September 7, the organising committee said overnight.

But matches scheduled for Edinburgh and Cardiff have had a disappointing response.

"We have sold around 2.05 million tickets and it's not finished since we're still shifting some 1500 a day, and the tickets returned to us are regularly put on sale," said committee head Bernard Lapasset, adding that the goal of selling 85 per cent had been fulfilled.

"We're encountering some difficulties in Edinburgh for the Scotland v Romania match, and in Cardiff for Wales v Japan and Fiji v Canada, for which 20,000 tickets have been sold with one month to go before the game," said Lapasset.

"I have no regrets about signing the agreement in 1999 with the Welsh to give them some matches, but in the future I think that the organisation of a World Cup should be done in one country so the same approach is applied everywhere."

Agence France-Presse