Brendan Gallagher: Get ready for a crescendo…. just like the Olympics

Suddenly it's World Cup year and the tournament is hurtling towards us as the pace quickens. No longer can we talk about next year and the future. The next six or seven months will go in a flash and before you know it England will be running out against Fiji on September 18.
We saw it at London 2012 and that acceleration is no bad thing, certainly for the teams. In extremis, with the clock ticking, difficult 50-50 decisions and selections become much easier. As the moment of reckoning approaches, the mind clears and the need for action becomes obvious.
Players who perhaps should have been dropped last year are jettisoned in the national cause while others on the way up are given their heads. Coaches have a licence to be ruthless, or to change their mind and suddenly recall those who have been out of favour.
It can all become a bit frantic. Wales used to have a pre-World Cup ritual of sacking their coach although that won't happen this year no matter what happens in the Six Nations. New Zealand decided to discard their unbeaten captain Wayne Shelford in the run-up to the 1987 World Cup and the French often embark on a period of civil war before a World Cup just to keep people on their toes.
Historically it can all be pretty chaotic off the pitch as well. There are pitfalls aplenty. In 2003 Australia were desperately playing catch-up after suddenly finding themselves hosting the entire tournament when co-hosts New Zealand failed to deliver on their promise of “clean” advert-free stadia.
The New Zealand Union, however, worked minor miracles last time round after the Christchurch earthquake on February 22 2011 killed 185 residents and rendered the historic Lancaster Park Stadium unusable, not just then but forever.
Coping with the human tragedy was the priority but, having made the decision that nothing was going to stop RWC2011, the New Zealand organisers had to somehow relocate the five pool games and two quarter-finals – and the hordes of travelling fans – that had earmarked been for Christchurch. Auckland and Dunedin stepped into the breach but RWC2011 definitely missed Christchurch and what it would have brought to the tournament.
Of course, this time back in 1999 Wales didn't even have a stadium to base their tournament around. The Millennium Stadium looked magnificent on paper – and indeed the finished article eventually fulfilled all expectations – but for much of World Cup year it was an ugly building site.
In June that year it was officially opened but the ground was fit to accommodate only 20,000 fans as Wales claimed an unlikely win over South Africa. Come September they were applying the last coat of paint the evening before the opening game between Wales and Argentina.
Even 1995, still the best tournament in my mind, wasn't all smooth sailing with scare stories concerning  the crime rate – “Johannesburg murder capital of the world” was one vivid headline I remember well – and the apparent potential for civil war in the newly-democratised Rainbow Nation. It all went swimmingly but my memory is the world held its breath in those anxious months before May 1995 and contingency plans were in place should it all go pearshaped.
In comparison it all seems fairly crisis free for RWC2015 although nobody's counting any chickens and as ever there is much frantic unseen paddling beneath the calm exterior. England2015 – the team organising the RFU's hosting of the tournament which now numbers 180 – have been flat out throughout 2014 dealing with tickets and transport issues and selecting and allocating team bases around the country.
“2014 was a really busy year but as we go into 2015 I still have the same three main aims,” says Debbie Jevans, below, head of England2015 and formerly the Director of Sport at London 2012. “I want to deliver an event the sport is proud of, a tournament that people say is the best World Cup ever. I want England2015 to leave a rich rugby legacy for the RFU and finally I would love there to be a tangible legacy for the 180-plus people working here. The expertise they are develop here can stand them and sport in this country in good stead as they tap into that over the next 10-20 years.
“We ticked a lot of important boxes in 2014, in fact we did a little slide show for the staff the other day just to underline how much progress. You can get a little lost in the process sometimes. The Too Big To Miss ticket campaign and launch has been massive while we have also fully vetted and established the 41 training centres for the 20 teams and staged a successful managers meeting in November.
“We staged a complete World Cup dummy run for a night/evening match when England played Samoa in November and we have interviewed over 10,000 volunteers and the final selection will be made later this month. 75 per cent of all those chosen will be individuals with strong connections with the grass roots of the game.
“That launch of the tickets sales was the biggest event of all and has gone phenomenally well. As I speak we have solid just over 1.85million of the 2.3m available and we are awaiting the “returns” from stakeholders and Unions around the world. Already, with the best part of nine months to go we have sold 300,000 more tickets than the total attendance in New Zealand in 2011.
“All returns will be on sale on the website – nowhere else – and they will come on stream in tranches between the end of April and June. We will be advertising when well in advance so that you don't have to source the website every day. But once they go on-line it will be on a first come first serve basis.”
According to the Chinese horoscope 2015 is the year of the Green Sheep which you could variously interpret as a good sign for Ireland, Wales and New Zealand. Mind you it could be a decent portent for England as well given that in the last two years of the “Sheep” they reached the final (1991) and then won the tournament itself (2003).
“From our point of view 2015 has to be the year that England becomes a rugby nation,” continues Jevans. “We want 2015 to have the same resonance as 1966 and 2012, the year has to be synonymous with a massive, historic, sporting event in this country.”
England2015, along with RWC, must also ensure that the tournament is conducted in and entirely fair manner and rule on what and what cannot be taken into a ground while abusive and sexist language will not be tolerated in any of the grounds. Pretty dry administrative stuff but these things can make or break an event. Back in November there were a couple of issues during the England v New Zealand match which caused a stir that needed dealing with and there can be no repeat.
On the massive new ‘Big Screens' messages of support for England were flashed up while the unedited live TV coverage of an incident of foul play involving All Blacks hooker Dane Coles was repeatedly shown. With the crowd predictably reacting to those images the pressure grew on referee Nigel Owens to take action and eventually the New Zealand hooker was shown a yellow card. He probably deserved it but clearly a ‘biased' big screen can play no part in an international sporting event.
“That just won't be happening at the World Cup, the big screen cannot and will not ever be used at any stage to influence a decision” insists Jevans. “We had conversations about this after the New Zealand match and we will not be showing the live TV coverage in such instances. When you host an event like the World Cup, as organisers, you basically become a neutral state for the duration and absolutely everything has to be even-handed.
“The company doing our sporting presentation and producing the Big Screen, is the same as we employed at London 2012 and fully understand the sensitivities here. They are a highly competent group of people.”
During the eventful New Zealand game there was also an incident of homophobic abuse directed at Owens from two England fans which later resulted in the fans being identified, banned from Twickenham, and ‘invited' to make a substantial contribution to charity.
“Abusive and unacceptable language is a collective responsibility of the sport and although we are aware that potentially there are issues I would fully expect the crowds to do what they have always done and that is to be self-policing,” says Jevans. A rugby crowd is always totally integrated and long may that be the case.  Respect still counts for a lot in the sport.
“The fact that the regrettable case in November was such big news highlighted for me that it is still so rare in rugby. Fans will be invited to come in and make as much noise as they are physically able but any form of abuse will not be tolerated.”
Jevans and her team are also in the final stages of preparing a guide as to what spectators can bring into the ground, given that huge flags suddenly seem to proliferate on such patriotic occasions while the ubiquitous vuvuzela or something similar has legions of detractors. Fireworks and firecrackers are also not unknown in big rugby crowds although they definitely will be banned.
“We absolutely don't want to be draconian and we will take a view nearer the time on anything other than vocal chords that makes a noise depending on what the latest invention is! I can, however, safely say that big umbrellas will be out and big flags won't, on safety grounds, be allowed to drape over the LED advertisements that flash around the perimeter of the ground and stands.”
One of the biggest boxes still to be ticked is for all 13 venues to be cleared as fit for purpose for a rugby Test with the reconstructed Olympic Stadium the most high profile as it will need to be licensed and then stage a ‘test' event.
“We have a big test event planned and will release details soon although it won't be an England warm-up game. It will be a big occasion, though, because we need a big crowd to simulate what will happen at the World Cup.
“We will also be releasing details soon of the nationwide rugby festival in which everybody can get involved and the fanzones which will be set up in every host city or town as well as at Rugby, the historic home of the game.”
To date, publicly at least, RWC2015 had been flying a little under the radar and that's no bad thing. If England had won the Six Nations and taken a couple of wins off New Zealand in the summer and November the public expectation would already be massive and the hype will have begun long ago. But that state of grace ends now. We saw how London 2012 built steadily to a crescendo and 2015 will be no different.