Twickenham clash worth £2m for Welsh rugby

The RFU will end up paying Wales £2m when they line up for the final act of their Twickenham trilogy in May.
A 50-50 split of the profits from the third England-Wales match of the season will send the WRU laughing all the way to the bank.      Despite fears elsewhere of overkill, the RFU expect to virtually fill Twickenham again for what will be marketed as a full-blown international.
The match, booked for the spring holiday weekend usually reserved for England’s non-cap fixture against the Barbarians, will help the RFU foot a £13m bill from the Aviva Premiership clubs as compensation for the domestic disruption caused by the World Cup.
Wales will be looked after as an equal partner. Measured in strictly financial terms, the fixture has the potential to be the most rewarding undertaken by any Welsh team at ‘HQ’, not that a price could be put on the World Cup victory there which led directly to Stuart Lancaster‘s exit as head coach.
In rugby there is no business like Twickenham business. The RFU’s newly-published annual report reveals that revenue from ticket sales for England’s seven home internationals last season increased by 33 per cent – from £26.2m to £34.7m.
Sponsorship and broadcasting for the same period to June this year totalled £58.8m compared to £52.1m the previous season. That made an England home match worth an average oF £13m.
A so-called friendly at the end of May will not have anywhere near the financial clout of the World Cup tie ten weeks ago, nor the Six Nations duel in March but it will still generate some large numbers, large enough
to make it worthwhile.
By May 29 – the day after the Premiership and Pro 12 Grand Finals – Eddie Jones may or may not have emulated Warren Gatland in winning a Grand Slam within a few months of his appointment. England’s failure to win more than one Slam in 20 years suggests that Jones has the law of averages definitely on his side.
For both countries, it provides an ideal warm-up immediately before their departure the following week for three-Test series in the Southern Hemisphere, England in Australia, Wales in New Zealand.
PETER JACKSON