England bid to end Cup farce

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While England and Ireland are playing their pool matches in France, Wales will have home advantage at the Millennium Stadium for their clash with Australia and Scotland host New Zealand at Murrayfield. Those two countries each have another "home pool" match as reward for backing France's bid for the 2007 tournament, which kicks off in Paris on Saturday week.

Cardiff will also stage one of the quarter-finals and Francis Baron, the Rugby Football Union's chief executive, said: "It does seem unfair but it results from the problems created by a competitive tender system to win the right to stage the World Cup. The current system leads to bartering behind the scenes and it's a shame that the entire Cup is not being staged in France."