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Fact Sheet

World Cup: Facts and figures


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2003 World Rugby Cup

Twenty nations are competing for the cup known as
Twenty nations are competing for the cup known as "Bill."
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Australia's Rugby World Cup will be the most-attended and most widely broadcast since the tournament was first played in 1987.

With 1.8 million tickets already sold and thouands more expected to be snapped up by the tournament's end, the event has already drawn more than the 1.75 million who attended the 1999 event in Britain.

The games will be broadcast in more than 200 countries with a potential viewing audience of more than 4 billion. In Australia there will be 149 hours of free-to-air coverage of the tournament with all but a handful of the 48 games being shown live.

Cable network providers will also show 18 hours of rugby coverage per day for the length of the six-week event.

Some other World Cup statistics:

* 1,200 international airline bookings and 5,000 domestic flights are needed to ferry players and officials, along with 700 coach trips.

* The tournament will use 1,000 rugby balls, 100 tonnes of ice and 9,000 laundry washes to keep the teams' kit looking tidy.

* 28 scrum machines will be used in training.

* Teams and organizers will transport 700 tonnes of freight around Australia.

* Nearly 900 team members and match officials will be attending requiring 36,000 hotel room nights to be booked in 64 hotels.

* International tourists arriving on 400 jumbo jets will need half a million nights in hotel rooms.

* At least 1,500 Japanese rugby fans will be based in Townsville, Queensland, the tournament base for Japan's team, the Cherry Blossoms.

*100,000 Australians will travel interstate to watch matches.


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