World Cup: The covers come off at last

Finally we know what the World Cup venue will look like.

Pictures of Surrey Sports Park have been impossible to come by up until now - a fact that, along with some inept promotional announcement from the ticket company, has had a few people worried about what it was all going to be like.

However, the IRB have at last released some pictures as well as some interesting background about how the venue (which is a bit outside most people's definition of "South West London", where the tournament was supposed to be held) was chosen. The facility's Chief Executive Jason Harborow said that "this started like an acorn in many ways because I contacted Rosie Williams to ask where England were going to do their pre-tournament training, and proposed hosting England here.

"Rosie came, she loved it, brought the England team and management down and they changed the venue for the tournament. I don't know where they were going to go before, but they came here and it was a tipping point for us because we were awarded it before we opened."

One major advantage seems to be that the teams will not only play at the venue, but will stay and train there as well (there are 10 grass pitches, three all weather pitches, as well as impressive indoor facilities, giving it an Olympic Village type of atmosphere).

All in all it sounds very impressive, which makes the secrecy about what it would look like and what was on offer all the more puzzling.